The Encouraging Thomist

Palm Sunday Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Mark 15:1-47 I. When you look at the cross,  what do you see? Do you see a religious symbol,  a wooden or brass engraved adornment   that shows up in church sometimes,    or that might be visible on the church sign outside? Do you see the millions of dollars of silver or gold crosses  that dot the jewelry isles in places as generic as Walmart or Target   that you can pick up for pennies on the dollar? When you look at the cross,  what do you see? Do you imagine an empty cross,  with Jesus not on it? A bare cross,  that bears no body on it,   that has no sting in it,    and that shields yourself from having to contemplate     the suffering that the Only Begotten Son of God      freely chose on behalf of the whole human race? Are you tempted to skip over the more brutish parts of the scene,  choosing to insulate and isolate the heaviness of the cross   by cold analytic of the text of St. Mark,    the safely distant observing of

Christ the High Priest Icon Lent V Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:1-13 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33 I. It's lunchtime,  you are hungry,   and you are trying to figure out how to solve this problem. How many of you have you ever had the following conversation with someone: "Where do you want to go to eat?"  "I don't know, what do you want?" Now, depending on how diverse you are in your food pallet,  this question is either quite exciting   or the source of deep dread.  There are some in the world who are up for anything:  they like a lot of things,   and they could in fact want any number of food options. But there are also some in the world  who have no clue what they want!   Even the thought of having to entertain options for eating    is the source of stress, uncertainty, and confusion.     "I don't know what I want! YOU pick some place!" But, something that is common in both circumstances  is that both people have to come to a clarity   about wh

The Fourth Sunday in Lent Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 I. My family has lived around this part of Arkansas  for almost half a century now,   having moved to Vilonia in the early 1980s. My mom and dad lived for a few years  in an A-frame house   just a little down south of Vilonia,    truly out in the country. My dad, being the hands-on type of handyman  worked on our family vehicles,   and instead of a fancy lift or a floor jack,    he had poured a concrete slab     that had a stair-step compartment      allowing him to simply pull the vehicle he was working on       over the top of that hole-like compartment        and work on them without having to lift the car.  Even though this little compartment was cramped,  and you had basically the distance of the car to the ground breathing space,   It was a pretty neat setup conceptually. One day,   he was working on changing the oil in a little Chevy Sprint,   a little 80s model hatchback car,    and he h