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 heavines...

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...

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 conceptua...

St. Peter and St. Paul Icon I. For the majority of my life thus far,  I've been very fortunate to play sports   with some very good teams. As a middle schooler,  I started training in Traditional Taekwondo,   and I ended up going with my school     to compete at tournaments around the state of Arkansas.      In junior high and high school,  I was extremely fortunate to play on a football team   that had winning records every year I played. In college,  our rugby team made the national tournament in 2014   and ended our season ranked #7 in the nation    in National Small College Rugby. But the thing I remember most vividly about all of it  is not really the games,   or the practices,    or even our biggest accomplishments.     The most vivid thing I know and remember      were the names and faces of my teammates. Because we were a team.  I was one of them, ...

The Baptism of Christ Icon The First Sunday after the Epiphany Genesis 1:1-5 Psalm 29 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11 I. There is a vivid metaphor in literature  that is often used to describe   making a choice that invariably affects the rest of the story.    And that wonderfully vivid metaphor is the phrase:     "a fork in the road." "A fork in the road" simply refers to a road  that splits into two paths,   of which you must make a choice to follow only one of them.     If you have taken a casual drive through the small towns of eastern Arkansas     there are indeed many examples of these forks in the road.  The poet Robert Frost uses this metaphor of the "fork in the road"  in his poem "The Road Not Taken" :   Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,   And sorry I could not travel both   And be one traveler, long I stood   And looked down one as far as I could   To where it bent in the undergrowt...

The Holy Innocents Icon Jeremiah 31:7-14 Psalm 84 Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a Matthew 2:13-23 I. Christmas  is a season! If you have heard me say this before,  and equally if you are tired of me saying it again,   its okay!    I'm okay being the broken record. But the fact of the matter is, friends,   that we are surrounded by a culture that only gets to think about Christmas   for 1 day a year!    And you know that this is the case when Walmart's Christmas merchandise     was a whopping 75% off last week,      not even 7 days after we celebrate! But Christmas as a season is also very important for us as Christians  because when we understand this incredibly important occasion   of God becoming incarnate in Jesus Christ Our Lord,    we, at least subconsciously,     allow ourselves to recognize      that there is more to Christmas than just the merry mood     ...

John the Forerunner Icon Second Sunday of Advent Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 2 Peter 3:8-15a Mark 1:1-8 I. Hope.    Hope is such a hard thing to define or describe  unless you yourself have experienced it first hand.  And, for a lot of us,  hope is something that we actually cannot experience   unless we find ourselves in the darkest parts of our lives. It is difficult to describe hope to someone who has always had it good  and has never encountered any difficulty.   But for those whose every day,  every hour,   every minute,    every second is a struggle,     hope is as fundamental and as essential as breathing. Those who have been to the depths of despair  are truly the best teachers about hope.   If you were to travel to poor parts of the world,   such as going to the beautiful but poor region of Appalachia,   or who go to the invisible slums of rural America,    or even tho...