Faith Encouraged: Recent Episodes
Fr. Barnabas Powell and Ancient Faith Radio
Homilies on living a purposeful life in Jesus Christ - Go through the Church year with Fr. Barnabas and his parish family as they discover through proper worship what it means to live a holy and purposeful life to the Glory of God.
The Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meatfare) is an annual invitation to honestly face our own need for God's mercy and a clear revelation that we can't put off dealing with these truths forever. But we live in a world where saying "Don't judge me" is an easy tool to shut down the uncomfortable mirror of our own choices. Today, are you awake enough to learn "the right answer before the awesome judgment seat of Christ?"
On the 14th Sunday of Matthew the Lord speaks very plainly to a people who have had every spiritual advantage and still, because they are not paying attention, miss the coming of the Messiah. A lack of attention is deadly to our spiritual lives.
On Orthodox Palm Sunday, we live in a modern society that offers us the stark contrast between a pure materialism leading to the emptiness of hopelessness or the timeless wisdom of a hope in Christ that leads us to His light!
Are you able to have such inner peace that outward circumstances are powerless to disturb you? Well, that's exactly the kind of peace Jesus Christ wants to give you.
In a world where our priorities are so disjointed that we find ourselves investing the best of our lives in temporary things while eternal things go without, we have to confront with honesty and repentance the challenge of authentic Christian Stewardship.
Jesus thanks Peter for the use of his boat the Lord used to preach to the people by telling Peter to push out further and let down his fishing nets. Of course we know the rest of the story.
Jesus tells the story of the Vineyard Owner and his problems with the workers he's hired to take care of his vineyard. Why do you think these wicked servants thought they could get away with this behavior?
The current delusion of our day is that life should be free of suffering or struggle. But that lie is actually leaving people in a perpentual adolescence that is destroying lives. The Faith offers us another path where we expect struggle and have Joy THROUGH it!
On this leavetaking of the Feast of the Transfiguration, Jesus heals a boy His disciples could not heal. It is amazing how He refers to the people of His day as "a wicked and perverse generation." Jesus could be describing our own day as well.
On the Feast of the Transfiguration, Jesus reveals the very central purpose for our existence and our true goal for our lives!
On the Sunday of the Holy Fathers we hear St. Paul teaching his spiritual son, St. Titus, how to live the faith instead of being distracted by troublemakers!
On this 5th Sunday of Matthew, St. Paul tells the Roman Church that if anyone is going to be saved we have to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord AND believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead!
Seeking the Kingdom of God first means valuing the Eternal over the Temporary. And it means that all the other priorities of my life find their proper place as well!
On this Father's Day we hear how important it is to provide our children with a good example of fatherhood so that they can call God, Father!
On this Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, it's time to stop being amazed by God's consistency and power!
On Palm Sunday, the Church calls us to celebrate being able to recognize Jesus. Do you know enough about your faith to recognize Christ?
On this Sunday, The Church invites us to reconnect to the wisdom of the Timeless Faith to bring us to the ability to see the cosmic theology of our faith as also very practical and applicable to our everyday lives!
On this Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, we are confronted by the Scriptures with the dangers of distraction. By avoiding being distracted by life and focus on our Christian living we will avoid the pitfalls of distraction.
On the first Sunday of Great Lent the Church calls us to recall the victory of Orthodoxy over the heresy of an invisible God! Now that God has become visible for our sake, we are invited to Come and See!
On Forgiveness Sunday we remember Adam and Eve being sent out of the Garden of Eden. Why? For Punishment? The answer may surprise you!
On the Sunday of the Last Judgement we see both the Righteous and the Unrighteous as the Lord the Same Question!
The Sunday of the Prodigal reminds us that repentance is never too late, and the Father wants us back every time we stray.
On this Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Lord Jesus gives us an insight into a sober and humble way of life. But our world is intoxicated by anger and fear, and all our choices are hampered by anger and fear. What's the way out? The Way of Repentance.
On this Sunday of Zacchaeus we start our preparation for Great Lent. And our first labor is to examine our motives. So, what motivates your faith?
St. Paul tells his faithful in Collasse that the Good News of Jesus means no more divisions between Jews and Greeks, between slaves and free men. Christianity is the death of racism!
Jesus Gives us the 5 fold Ministry of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers to help us get used to the Eternal Light of His presence so we will enjoy being with Him!
We are at the start of a new year. We celebrate the circumcision of the Lord and the life of St. Basil. By doing this, the Church offers us a challenge to change the way we think about time!
The Orthodox Church teaches that Jesus Christ is more than a great teacher, more than a good man. The Church teaches that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh; born of a Virgin, and come to save the world! You are part of that vision for humanity!
St. Paul tells the Colossians the greatest danger to their spiritual lives is Idolatry. But what is Idolatry? Turns out it is much deeper than an idol!
Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath Day and this reveals the hypocritical hearts of those around Him!
When the rich young ruler meets Jesus, he asks the only question worth asking. How sad he didn't like the answer.
Jesus tells the parable about a man who is doing so well, he has to tear down his old barns to build bigger barns. And God confronts him with his mortality! This is the only way to avoid the Passions for Distractions!
Jesus commands some outlandish behaviors. He says love those who don't love you. Do good to those who don't do good to you. And even lend to others expecting nothing in return! How can we do this? By embracing the One True Center of our real lives!
The distance between what I know and what I do causes such frustration in my life, and the confusion of seeing the world, the nation, the community, the family I love suffer due to the weaknesses of all of us causes even more frustration. But, in the end, this frustration flows from my own broken life!
The work of the Faith is meant to cleanse your spiritual eyes so you have 20/20 vision about what's most important in your life.
Jesus refuses to allow the lack of faith of His disciples to send the crowd away. He tells them, commands them "You feed them!"
St. Paul tells the Romans that our God is the God of Steadfastness AND Encouragement. It's this vision of God that makes all the hard work of faithfulness worth all the effort to stay focused on a daily practice of the Faith. And it's only that kind of practice that will be a worthy legacy to pass on to our children!
The two seas in the Holy Land are both fed by the Jordan River. One sea is alive with all kinds of fish and plants and birds, and the other is Dead! The reason why this is so is the same reason why some people become saints and some don't!
On the Sunday of the Fathers of the 1st Ecumnical Council at Nicea, the Church calls us to consider the powerful prayer of our Lord Jesus in John 17. It turns out eternal life isn't a situation as much as it is a relationship! Being connected to life gives us life. Are you connected?
The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman sees the Lord gently confront a dear lady who didn't realize Who she was speaking to, and this blindness to just Who Jesus is means she is missing the real point of her life!
On Palm Sunday a crowd shouted out their praise for Christ. This popularity at the beginning of Holy Week won't last. So, why are we humans so fickle?
On the Sunday of the Cross during Great Lent, the Church gives us the miracle of suffering as the medicine that will carry us to the joys of Pascha. Halfway through Lent we look to the Cross for strength and joy THROUGH suffering, not escape from suffering!
On the Sunday of St. Gregory of Palamas we celebrate the wisdom of the Orthodox Faith to marry the physical and the spiritual and escape the false dichotomy of the created and the Uncreated. In other words, no more cubbyholing our lives into the sacred and the secular!
On this Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, we are confronted with a theology that invites us to know ourselves by seeing what God looks like in flesh!
When Jesus heals 10 lepers, He opens the door for us to learn a valuable insight into a consistent life in Christ. The two lessons learned from a grateful leper who was also a foreigner is meant for us all.
The monks on Mt. Athos use to greet one another, not with "How are you?" or "How are you doing?" but with "How is your prayer?" St. Paul tells the faithful at the Ephesian Church that the gifts God has given to His Church were meant to bring each of us to the unity of the faith, to maturity, to the full stature of Jesus Christ. So, is that what is happening in your life? If not, why not?
St. John the Baptist declared he was unworthy to untie the sandals of the Lord. He also promised that, while he baptized with water, the Lord Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit! And this is both Good News AND terrifying News! Especially because Fire does more than illuminate!
So, why, on the Sunday before Christmas, does the Church call us to read this lineage of Jesus? Because there's an irreplaceable power to community memory. And more so for we moderns who have sacrificed our attention span for entertainment!
The guests invited to the rich man's banquet didn't value their invitation to his dinner as much as they valued other things. In the end, none of the expected elite got to go, but the most unexpecting group were invited and enjoyed the hospitality of the rich man!
On the Sunday of the Synaxis of the Archangels, we confront the challenge of hearing the Message from the Messengers of God. But to be able to hear, we must first want to hear. Do you want to hear what the Messenger says to the Churches?
The Gadarene Demoniac was possessed by a "Legion" of demons. His spirit was so fractured and divided that he was not only his own worst enemy, but he was a threat to all around him.
What a very familiar passage is this passage about a sower planting seed! We've heard this message forever, but I wonder, do we know how to cultivate "god soil" in our lives so that the seed of the Word of God will grow within us?
All great religions have a form of the Golden Rule. But in the Christian Faith this wisdom has specific wisdom on not only how to actually follow the Golden Rule but to share this faith with others.
There wasn't a Jew within the sound of Jesus' voice when He said if any man would be my disciple, he must take up his cross... You see, there's only one use for a cross, and that's for an execution. The Christian message invites us not only to follow Christ but to die to everything that isn't like Christ in our lives. That's what it means to "bear your cross!"
Why does the Orthodox Church celebrate the Elevation of the Holy Cross? A device meant for torture and a grizzly death is held up, venerated, and even kissed! Why? Well, because what humanity meant for evil, God transformed into Victory and Life!
A Servant owes his Master millions and he's forgiven. Then this wicked servant turns on a fellow servant who owes him a few dollars and he throws his co-worker in prison! The Master is not happy and takes His servant he had forgiven such a great debt and throws him into prison too! So shall the Father do to everyone who doesn't forgive "from the heart."
Jesus uses seemingly harsh language when a father brings an epileptic son to the Lord for healing. But it's only because it's only this kind of language that can break past the selfishness of our own hearts to teach us how to have faith the size of a mustard seed!
The crowd followed the Lord into a "lonely place" knowing full well there was no food there. But heir courage and desire for Christ overcame their fear of physical hunger. Does your love and desire for Christ overcome your fear of lesser desires?
Jesus confronts two men who have become "demoniacs" that is these men had so been overcome by their passions and unbridled desires that they were more animal than man. What a powerful picture of the dangers to us in today's society! Learn how the Faith is meant to tame the passions!
Jesus promised His disciples that He would transform them from fishermen to "Fishers of men." How does that apply to us today as Orthodox Christians? In fact, why are you Orthodox?
The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the Coming of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples of Jesus. But why? As followers of Christ, we too, have been given the grace of the Holy Spirit in our lives as well. So, does the closeness of the Spirit in your life reflect a reality or an untapped resource?
Our society has become a place where Radical Autonomy has been elevated to the highest good. What "I" want is considered the highest value and the measure of the happiness of my life. But Christianity has a different value system based on Radical Communion.
On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, we are confronted with the commun hunger of all humans, the common thirst of all of us: to be loved and to love. But how do we avoid the traps of trying to fulfill this hunger and thirst in the wrong way? How do we avoid wrecking our lives by bad choices?
On the Third Sunday of Pascha we are called to remember the healing of the Paralytic 38 years sick. Jesus asks him a question and confronts him with a command: "Do you WANT to be healed?" and "Take up your pallet and walk." The power of desire and obedience challenges us to allow the grace of God to transfigure our past from a burden to a badge of grace and mercy.
The Sunday of the Myrrhbearers shows us some courageous women who, even when faced with an impossible task (who will roll the stone away) nevertheless kept on going to minister to the Lord. But even when they were confronted with the empty tomb and the news of the Lord's resurrection, they left the place afraid! Our world is facing some impossible tasks as well and we traditional believers are confronted with the societal earthquake of a changin moral climate. When faced with these realities, what kind of example will we leave our children? Will we allow society to silence us? Or will e face a scary time with determination and faith?
Let's face it, the unexpected happens in life. And when it does, the danger is always being knocked off one's feet in the process. So, since the unexpected always happens, it seems silly not to prepare for it!
The unexpected certainly took the disciples by surprise when the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead. They didn't expect the Lord to be declared the "King of Israel" at the Triumphal Entry, and they didn't expect the crowd that hailed the Lord as the Son of David at the first of the week to turn on Him by the end of the week.
The unexpected happens in life. And today we learn how to expect the unexpected!
The word "impossible" is thrown around a lot, but the technological advances in our lifetimes would look like magic to previous generations. I wonder what will be commonplace tomorrow that we call "impossible" today? Both our Epistle Lesson and our Gospel lesson use words like "possible" and "impossible" on this Sunday of St. John Climacus. And the whole point is to drive home the truth that it IS NOT impossible for you to become like Christ, especially when you have His Grace and Power assisting you up the "ladder of Divine Ascent!"
On the second Sunday of Great Lent the Church focuses our thoughts on the paralyzed man whose four friends tore a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was and let their friend down before the Lord so that he could be healed. Everyone, including the paralyzed man, was surprised when Jesus said his sins were forgiven when they expected the Lord to heal his physical paralysis. It turns out the Lord wanted to heal both his spiritual AND physical illnesses. And the Lord wants to do the same for us, if we have the faith!
On this Forgiveness Sunday, the Church draws our attention to a passage in Matthew's Gospel that offers us a Warning, some Wisdom, and the Way! Entering Great Lent without these insights will hamper your ability to truly celebrate the Resurrection. Suffice it to say it has everything to do with being forgiven and extending forgiveness!
The Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meatfare) is an annual invitation to honestly face our own need for God's mercy and a clear revelation that we can't put off dealing with these truths forever. But we live in a world where saying "Don't judge me" is an easy tool to shut down the uncomfortable mirror of our own choices. Today, are you awake enough to learn "the right answer before the awesome judgment seat of Christ?"
Every year before Great Lent we hear the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. But each year we should. All because it is so easy to allow the Power, Purpose, and Perspective of Great Lent to be lost in either a mere religious habit or, worse yet, total disregard. And that's because we humans are so very vulnerable to hiding from the truth that we need God and His transformative Presence to continually make us like Him.
The central truth of the Orthodox Christian faith is Gratitude. If we can learn to live a grateful life, we will truly be shaped into the character of Christ and will reflect the life of Christ i.n our lives as well. But this life of gratitude is difficult in a world where we so easily dismiss our faith or reduce our faith to smaller ideas. How do we escape this all too easy temptation? By observing what is our initial reaction to being blessed with God's grace! What is our initial reaction to God's kindness to us? What is our reaction to the benefits of gifts? This internal clue reveals our true character!
The Apostle Paul reveals the central purpose of our Christian life together as Church when he tells the Ephesians that all the ministries of the Faith are meant to "attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
Your memory is filled with all kinds of thoughts, some good and some bad. How do you choose to remember your life? Do you only focus on the bad things, stew about revenge, or do you ignore all the bad things and live in the delusion that "everything is fine." Well, the Faith invites us to deal with life in a realistic manner, always informed by the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The celebration of the Enfleshing of God at Christmas is nothing less than a Divine Invasion of Creation by the Creator for the purpose of rescuing all of Humanity.
The Good News of Jesus Christ invites us to such a radical departure from the fallen vision of our true purpose that confronting this message invariably challenges us. This challenge will be received differently by each person based on the true nature of their heart.
When Jesus shares the parable of the man who invited his friends to a banquet and they all made excuses as to why they couldn't come, the Lord put's these words in the man's mouth: "None of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet." When God invites you to be at His Banquet, will you make an excuse?
When Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath Day, His act of love and mercy reveals the deep spiritual poverty of others whose hearts are gripped by mere rule keeping. This revelation is an invitation to you and me to examine our own attitudes towards our faith!
Father's homily today deals with the invitation to "Come and See." This is a dynamic and involved participation in the living out of the Faith. This is a purposeful Orthodoxy that demands not mere observance but actual practice of our faith. Tow men answer two different questions with "Come and See" and today we are invited to find out why!
The only place in the Bible where God Himself calls a man a fool! And it was because this man was so blinded by his possessions, he thought nothing of his mortality! How foolish! Are you living a foolish life?
Matthew was a hated tax collector for the occupying Roman Empire. His encounter with Jesus Christ changed him forever. It is this life changing encounter that invites us today to further renew the spirit of our minds about just what is this Christian life anyway!
Both sickness and even death is made well by faith. But this message isn't about any physical sickness or even physical death but the spiritual sickness and death that grips us and enslaves us to a life of self-centered choices. Being free from that sickness and death is the only path that leads to authentic human life! It's the only path to a renewed mind!
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus confronts us today about a real change in the way we think. Only the courageous will comply!
The Gadarene Demoniac had been reduced to an animal existence by his misuse of his freedom. Jesus comes and heals him and he is finally in his right mind. Are you in your right mind?
We have all heard the Golden Rule, but there is so much more to this passage and it has everything to do with a very serious challenge to the status quo of our lives. After all, even sinners love those who love them!
Isn't it interesting after the Lord blessed Peter and his partners in their fishing business, Peter saw himself as a sinful man and asked the Lord to leave him? But that's the risk of standing so close to the Light. It reveals who you really are! But Christ invites us to be close to Him without fear or shame and allow His Light to set us free!
The message of the Cross is God's invitation to you and me to break the destructive patterns of our lives and embrace the wise pattern of Purgation, Illumination, and Union in a perpetual growth and maturity pattern of becoming like Christ! It is a pattern that gives life instead of the slavery of the destructive patterns of selfish living!
Why does the Church offer us the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross? Because the Christian faith is about dealing with reality and having our all too easy temptations to delusions and the fantasy of what I'm afraid of or what I wish for blind us to the reality God wants us to embrace! Waking up is hard, but it has to be done!
We hear it all the time - God loves you - but our modern world has so lost the depth and beauty of God's love, we are in danger of emptying this profound truth of its powerful meaning. Today we look at a familiar passage of scripture with new eyes, with God's eyes, and what we discover is life changing!
When faced with a life-changing forgiveness of a huge debt, this man in our Gospel Lesson revealed his own wicked heart by not showing that same forgiveness and mercy to his fellow servant. It did not end well for that wicked servant. And it won't end well for we who refuse to forgive from the heart!
Trust is a foundational building block of any relartionship. Without it there simply is no way to have anything more than some superficial connection. But trust requires risk. And we humans avoid risk most of the time. Jesus challenges us to risk trusting Him.
Circumstances can be intoxicating and Fr. Barnabas says that true contentment begins in the heart not with our circumstances.
When the disciples were confronted with the impossible task of feeding 5,000 men plus women and children, they forgot that their Lord was all they needed!
In a society where the noise factor of our lives threatens to drown out the loving Voice of God, learning to listen for that "still, small voice" that tells us who we really are is even more important.
There is a huge difference in trying to be something and living either the realization that you ARE something. It changes your motivation and your attitude about who you are. Well, you ARE the light of the world.
The Roman Centurion, a Gentile, shows more faith than all of Israel, according to the Lord's observation. How is it an "outsider" without all the benefits of centuries of religious education can see more clearly than the whole of israel shaped by centuries of examples and theology? Turns out being an insider is no guarantee that you won't end up outside!
Sts. Peter and Paul were two men from the opposite ends of Jewish society and yet each found a way to not only value each other but also challenge each other. In a Church broad enough to hold these two very different men, we are called to embrace each other and be enriched by the diversity of gifts we each possess.
Since God will judge the secrets of men according to St. Paul's letter to the Romans, it just makes sense to order our lives so that our secrets don't undo our words and our faith.