Mid-faith Crisis

Nick is depressed by a worship song, Joe is frustrated by the church and the feedback sends us off in all directions. Enjoy - because, let’s face it, we’re all just waves tossed in the ocean and vapours in the wind. Or something.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Bank of Dave
• Burns supper
• Haggis

At the third - or possibly fourth - attempt, Nick and Joe return. In an episode which has been dogged by disease, broadband failure, diary clashes and equipment meltdown, we eventually talk about our yearly themes. May the bongo-playing angel guard our steps.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Invitation to Solitude and Silence - Ruth Haley Barton
• Bongo-playing angel
• A Man Called Otto
• I Wanna Dance with Somebody
• Charlotte
• The Genre-Bending, Death-Defying Triumph of Charlotte Salomon’s Art
• Starling murmurations
• Murmuration over Spar
• Your Theme

What gifts did 2022 bring us? And what were the hardships? We share our experiences this year and reflect on how our themes worked out. We touch on whether accepting mystery means not asking the difficult questions and how language about incarnation is as limiting as the event itself. Also, Joe has had a bad experience at the panto and Nick is annoyed about maths.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Taste: My Life through Food
• Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
• Spirited
• Christmas Carole
• Brian May - Queen: The Guitar Solo
• Sprachspielen: Incarnation
• Episode 184: ‘Sort it Ahhht!’
• Episode 185: A Worthing Pier experience

It's a final, bonus episode for the year. And one recorded in a storm of technical challenges (sorry about that). Do we need to find a special purpose in life, or should we just embrace being a disciple? Did Jesus endure the incarnation, or did he enjoy it? And were the ancient Jews really that interested in pomegranates?

Thanks for all your support this year. Happy Christmas everyone!

Mentioned in this episode:

We return to the topic of paying attention and Joe's latest pier-based epiphanies. We chat about how attention can be a kind of prayer and how we can cope with the distracting and even sinful thoughts which stop us paying attention to God. And a moderately enthusiastic Christmas to one and all.

• No Lessons and Carols: the Mid-Faith Crisis Christmas Service 2022 Sign up today!
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Mentioned in this episode:

• Secret life of the pencil
• How to cook the perfect shepherd’s pie
• Nick Page, Christmas: Tradition, Truth and Total Baubles

Yes, it's our now annual disagreement about the birth narratives in the gospels. Along the way we discuss the problems of inculturation, why hospitality, celebration and fun might be the real meaning of Christmas, and the difference between netball and basketball. And we introduce the helpful concept of back-tithing.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist
• Nick Page, Christmas: Tradition, Truth and Total Baubles
• Nick Page, The Wrong Messiah
• Raymond Brown, The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus

Nick has been thinking about spirituality and sport. Joe has had a transcendent moment on the pier. We ramble on about advent as a time of preparation, the difficulty of staying in the moment, the idea of God being on our side, and the spiritual practice of just turning up.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• The Blind Side
• Advent in Two Minutes

As we head into Advent, we have an interview with Brian Draper. Brian talks about wonder, hope, leaning into the darkness, sharing the inherited riches of our faith, and how 'not knowing is the most intimate'. Meanwhile, Nick has been all arty and Joe has been fighting technical issues. And losing. Heavily.

• No Lessons and Carols: the Mid-Faith Crisis Christmas Service 2022 Sign up today!
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Mentioned in this episode:

• Brian Draper Advent Emails
• Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem
• Thomas Oord, God Can't
• The Lavender Hill Mob
• 3-Ingredient Cocktails Robert Simonson
• The Light of the World
• Octavio Moss - Holy Ground

We talk about the complexities of being Christlike, the joy of temperance and the idea of a self-limiting God. Also, Joe wants to be both Matthew and Luke, and let's all do the Hinkumbooby.

Coming Soon - No Lessons and Carols, the Mid-faith Crisis Christmas Service.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Hinkumbooby
• Episode 117: The theology of ‘I dunno’
• Episode 198: No such thing as the great commission
• William Placher, Narratives of a Vulnerable God: Christ, Theology, and Scripture

We talk about how we can use outrage to avoid dealing with our own pain, finding peace in the difficult times, not giving up on love, beauty and creativity, and how systematic theology always fails when it’s punched in the face.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Revolver Special Editions
• Hokey Pokey