Tag: C.S. Lewis

To Catch Us All

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment
Sermon for Sunday, January 26, 2025 || Epiphany 3C || 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Multiple people asked me to expand on my sermon from last Sunday about common cause. They asked me what I thought they could do to counter the forces of fracture and disintegration in our society. So I’d like to take the time this morning to dwell on one particular call to action, which, handily, springs from today’s reading from First Corinthians. This call to action is so simple that anyone can do it, but it does take time and attention to grow into a dedicated spiritual practice. The call is simply this: with God’s help, expand and deepen your connections with other people.

Continue reading “To Catch Us All” →

You are the Light

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment
Sermon for Sunday, February 5, 2023 || Epiphany 5A || Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 5:13-20

“You are the light of the world.” Jesus says these words to his disciples as a great crowd listens in to his teaching that we now commonly call “The Sermon on the Mount.” You are the light of the world. In John’s account of the Gospel, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the World”, but here in Matthew, he’s not talking about himself. He’s talking to his followers and to the readers of the Gospel and (a few thousand years later) to us.

You are the light of the world. And Jesus keeps going with two more images – the city on the hill and the lamp on the lampstand – as things that, like the light, should never be hidden. And then he says, to make sure everyone understands his meaning: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Continue reading “You are the Light” →

Calling to You

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment
Sermon for Sunday, October 16, 2022 || Proper 24C || Luke 18:1-8

“Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” So Luke tells us before sharing the story of a woman whose primary attribute is her unflagging persistence. But I wonder how many of us might like to tiptoe past Jesus’ reason for telling the story in the first place – his desire for his followers (then and now) to pray with dogged persistence, to pray always.

We might like to tiptoe past this notion because it seems so unrealistic. How could we possibly pray all the time? Maybe Jesus is thinking that if he starts as high as “always,” then when we bargain him down, we’ll still be praying sometimes.

Or maybe not. Jesus doesn’t really seem to be one for haggling. Maybe he really does yearn for us to pray always, to pray with the same unflagging persistence as the widow demonstrates in her quest for justice. If that’s the case, then the popular understanding of prayer isn’t going to cut it; that is, an understanding of prayer as simple wish fulfillment. We need a bigger definition of prayer.

Continue reading “Calling to You” →

Announcing Adam’s New Novel: The Islands of Shattered Glass

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

A new novel of high fantasy and adventure from author Adam Thomas.

A million years of elven life
Will never rise with sun or moon,
Will never grant both bane and boon,
For lost they are in endless strife.

So says the “Dirge for Meilin’s Heirs,” the last poem written by night elf creativity before the War at Dusk consumed all art in the furnace of conflict. Decades of fighting between elven peoples have destroyed any hope for peace until a weapon of tremendous power reaches the field of battle. Each side believes the other deployed the mysterious weapon, which kills day elf and night elf alike, leading to the smallest chance for a cease-fire.

But even the smallest flame can keep the darkness at bay.With the elves locked in never-ending warfare, the Grasp flourishes. The criminal organization influences every business across the islands, and either the money rolls in or heads roll out. But when a small-time grifter runs afoul of the Grasp, she sets off a series of events that will bring together criminals, peacekeepers, warriors, and wide-eyed dreamers. When they collide, the War at Dusk will either end or go on forever, shattering anew the Islands of Shattered Glass.

 

Adam Thomas, writer of wherethewind.com, presents the third stand-alone novel set in Sularil, his own Tolkien-esque fantasy world. A lover of works of high fantasy ever since reading The Hobbit and Redwall way back in middle school, Adam brings his new offering to the genre with a story about the importance of coming together and letting go of the cycle of revenge. (For ages 14 and up.)

For a brief excerpt of The Islands of Shattered Glass, please click here.

Click here to purchase The Islands of Shattered Glass
on Amazon in paperback or kindle edition.

And check out Adam’s other fantasy offerings:
The Halfling Contagion
The Storm Curtain
The Shields of Sularil: Torniel, The Jeweled City, and True Sight

 

 

Sabbatical Notes, Week 6: Fantasy Bias

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

Note: This week’s essay is a sample of what I’m working on during my sabbatical – a series of pieces in which I am interrogating my own past and looking for the societal underpinnings of my unconscious biases, especially in the realm of racism and white supremacy.

I have always loved fantasy and science fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation is still, and probably always will be, my favorite TV show. As a young child, I watched Return of the Jedi until I wore out the VHS. In sixth grade I cut my long-form fantasy teeth on the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and The Hobbit. It took me three tries to get through The Lord of the Rings, but I finally did it in ninth grade, and then I read it every year for a decade. My senior year of high school, I read 35 Star Wars novels. Frank Herbert’s Dune blew my mind somewhere in there, but I can’t remember exactly when.

So it’s no secret I am a proud member of many fandoms: LOTR, Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, the MCU, the whole Whedonverse (especially Buffy and Firefly). Engagement with some of these creative properties has shaped me from childhood. I learned the meaning of true friendship from Frodo and Sam. I learned the value of leadership with integrity from Captain Jean-Luc Picard. (And I learned the best way to sit down in a chair from Commander Riker.)

Continue reading “Sabbatical Notes, Week 6: Fantasy Bias” →

Twisted Scripture

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment
Sermon for Sunday, March 10, 2019 || Lent 1C || Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

I always think of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis when I read the Gospel lesson for the first Sunday of Lent, particularly this year when we read the story of Jesus’ temptation as told by the Gospel writer Luke. In the book, C.S. Lewis pens a couple dozen imaginative letters from Screwtape, a Senior Tempter in the devil’s bureaucracy, to his nephew Wormwood, who is in charge of tempting one particular man. The letters present an incisive look at the moral and spiritual life through the lens of that which might lead such a life astray. The book is wildly creative and written so well that sometimes you find yourself agreeing with Screwtape and then realize you got suckered in by the temptation. This book is just so good.

Continue reading “Twisted Scripture” →

Announcing Adam’s New Novel: The Halfling Contagion

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

A new novel of high fantasy and adventure from author Adam Thomas.

Plague strikes the state of Felmire.
The queen and prince fall victim.
The princess seeks a cure.

Princess Rynliana Caris Feldonsire survived the plague, but no one else has. Halfling midwife Liralee Broderil believes she knows why. Could it be the result of a secret elixir she gave Ryn when the princess was a newborn baby struggling to breathe? If so, the eternal lotus might hold the cure to the contagion destroying the human population of Felmire. But the mysterious plant blooms only one day a year, and only a Lotusborn like Ryn can find it. Will she be in time to save her people?

Mourning for his dead wife and son, Ryn’s father Tarion sinks deeper into grief and retreats from his duty as monarch of Felmire. His younger brother Reave takes it upon himself to discover a cure for the plague. Reave seeks help from the upstart healer and arcanist Victus Graves who has noticed something strange about the halfling immigrants to Felmire. None of them has contracted the illness. Are the halflings the key to curing the contagion? Or are they the cause?

Adam Thomas, writer of wherethewind.com, presents the second stand-alone novel set in Sularil, his own Tolkien-esque fantasy world. A lover of works of high fantasy ever since reading The Hobbit and Redwall way back in middle school, Adam brings his new offering to the genre with a pair of strong female heroes and a story about walking through grief and about how we treat refugees among us. (For ages 14 and up.)

For a brief excerpt of The Halfling Contagion, please click here.

Click here to purchase The Halfling Contagion
on Amazon in paperback or kindle edition.

And check out Adam’s other fantasy offerings:
The Storm Curtain
Torniel
The Jeweled City

 

Announcing Adam’s New Novel: The Storm Curtain

Published on by Adam Thomas6 Comments

A new novel of high fantasy and adventure from author Adam Thomas.

The Storm Curtain is open.
The Three Sisters have fallen.
War has come to Arillon.

The orcs of Ornak have taken the islands known as the Three Sisters, bringing sudden war to the coast of Arillon, a country on the grand island of Sularil. Hopelessly outnumbered, an alliance of humans, dwarves, and elves attempts to slow the orcs’ march towards the immense city of Thousand Spires. How could the small country of Ornak contain such an overwhelming force? This is the question on the minds of Sularin general and soldier alike.

Only one person is in a position to find the answer. New recruit Grail, an elf of the Oruana Kir, is shipwrecked on her way to the front and finds herself washed ashore on the coast of Ornak. Will she remain alone in a hostile land to find answers? Or will she return across the sea to rejoin her best friend Daxa Torn in the fight? Whatever she decides, one question haunts Grail more than any other: why can she not commune with animals, taking their shapes like the rest of her people?

Adam Thomas, writer of wherethewind.com, presents the first novel set in Sularil, his own Tolkien-esque fantasy world. A lover of works of high fantasy ever since reading The Hobbit and Redwall way back in middle school, Adam brings his own offering to the genre with a pair of strong female heroes and a story about finding family and releasing shame in the midst of turmoil and war. (For ages 15 and up.)

For a brief excerpt of The Storm Curtain, please click here.

Click here to purchase The Storm Curtain
on Amazon in paperback or kindle edition.

 

Magnetic Mercy

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment
Sermon for Sunday, May 21, 2017 || Easter 6A || Acts 17:22-31

I’m going to start today’s sermon with a statement, which I hope is confusing enough to make sure you want to stay with me for the next ten minutes while I unpack it. Are you ready? The statement is this: None of us has ever actually worshiped God. That’s the statement – none of us has ever actually worshiped or prayed to or talked about God.

Are you sufficiently confused? Good! I was so confused when I started working on this sermon that I spent a good hour trying to figure out what to say first. In the end I decided to invite you into my confusion and see if together we can find our way out. We have the Apostle Paul to blame. In our passage from the book of Acts this morning, Paul finds himself in Athens, Greece. He strolls the boulevards looking at the statuary dedicated to various gods of Greece and other nations. And then he comes across one altar with the inscription: “To an unknown god.” Paul decides this unknown god is the God of of his ancestors and the Father of his Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul stands up at a gathering of the local scholarly elite and proclaims to them just who he thinks this unknown god is. Continue reading “Magnetic Mercy” →

So I Send You

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment
Sermon for Sunday, April 23, 2017 || Easter 2A || John 20:19-31

Near the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the Stone Table cracks and Aslan returns to life. His adversary had executed him on that table in place of the boy Edmund. The witch thinks she has won a decisive victory, but Aslan knows of deeper magic than she. So the witch doesn’t expect the risen lion to appear at her castle while she’s off trying to conquer the land of Narnia. But that’s what happens. Aslan, the Christ-like figure of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, races to the witch’s home to free all those whom she had turned into statues. And do you know how he releases them from their captivity? He breathes on them. Continue reading “So I Send You” →