The Encouraging Thomist

St. Paul Icon The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18 Psalm 1 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46 I. There is a little book that my class in seminary was assigned to read  for one of our beginning classes as first year seminary students.   And it was a book called "Life Together"    by one of the most important Christian theologians of the 20th century:     Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Now, Bonhoeffer is a German Christian  who lived and wrote and eventually died   under the Nazi regime of Germany    during the hell on earth that was World War II. During this world-wide calamity of a war,  Bonhoeffer creates an underground community,   some might even call it an underground seminary,    in which Bonhoeffer and other young pastors in training     dedicate themselves to living in intentional Christian community. The book my class read our first year in seminary,  "Life Together"   is what Bonhoeffer writes about the experience of intentional Christia

Jesus the Son of God Icon The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 45:1-7 Psalm 96:1-13 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Matthew 22:15-22 I. The easiest way that someone can get into trouble  is if they say the wrong thing about someone   who thinks they have power over them.  Not asking for a show of hands on this one,  but for those of you who were the kids in school   who thought you could get away with saying something disparaging about your teacher    and word of what you said reached the powers that be     resulting in that awkward parent-teacher conference,      you know what saying the wrong thing against someone in authority can result in.  For you who have served in military service,  for better or worse,   you know better than most folks    that it is a dangerous game to play to speak a word against your commanding officer,     no matter if that commanding officer's character is good or bad.  Authority can have an uneasy alliance with the truth.  But authority abused is even mo