Like Abraham with Isaac, we Christians have benefited from receiving the gift of the Son of God twice, the first his marvelous life on earth and the second his life eternal—by which he guides—protects and counsels those who follow him.  We Armenian Christians, whose weekly service is called “the sacrifice,” must always remember the essence of sacrifice and its implications for all of life:  That to properly receive anything, including life itself, requires that we recognize it precisely as gift, as something undeserved. And to do that requires sacrifice, a daily willingness to offer our lives back again to God and for others.  This echoes Abraham’s great sacrifice. This honors God the Father’s great sacrifice.  This was, is, and will be Jesus’ great sacrifice, the Badarak…our weekly ritual reminding us that our lives are gifts; and as we learn to offer them back to God and each other, God blesses and returns them again and again in ever deeper ways, now and always, amen.

–This Sermon Inspired by “Anatomy of Sacrifice” by Fr. Ron Rolheiser