all that's holy: blue collar podcst the missionplace

A belated happy new year. We’re finally showing up here.
As the year begins, we look at the upcoming Super Bowl, and will be focusing on the Academy Awards.
And just because Craig was feeling nostalgic, the transition music is all from Five Iron Frenzy’s musical search for Reese Roper’s pants.
And, as we recognize Lent is coming soon, we are looking for suggested acronyms for Lent. We try out a few and are looking for some more! Send us your LENTen acronyms!

After getting it figured out what time of the year it is (year’s end - Gregorian calendar, year’s beginning - lectionary calendar), we agree it is Christmastide.
Odd word, “Christmastide”, but as of this recording, it is the 4th Day of Christmas, so the Christmas tide is still rising.

As always we begin with random talk about bagels and smoothly segue into hefty theological discussions and conversations about lists. This is the season of lists. The best of the year, the worst of the year, and more. We look at some of those often overlooked lists.
Here are some links for what we discussed:
Google Search Trends
Worst Things to Spill in Your Car
Varieties of Axe Fragrances
And the inventor of auto-tune, Dr Andy Hildebrand

(Apologies to Botticelli’s Nativitiy, thanks PhotoShop Generative Fill AI)

Cody and Craig discussed the process of deconstructing theological assumptions by thinking about coconut macaroons, letting go of beliefs that are no longer true or beneficial, and the potential for reconstructing beliefs to align with a deeper truth.
We’ve been using Sesh.com (Dear Sesh, sponsorship?) to guide our conversations. It’s a great app that can work with Zoom. By providing a shareable agenda, with timers, meetings can stay on topic and on time. As an added bonus, we’ve been using the “ice-breaker” feature, which poses random questions, to begin and end our conversations.

The conversation also covered a range of other topics including, sports as panentheistic (big word warning: we go against our own motto about not using big words), Christmas celebrations beyond Christmas Day, and experiences at various gourmet restaurants.
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Zoom AI Companion has been helping to write up the summaries of our conversations. So here’s what Zoom said, in part, edited (a little) for accuracy (sort of).
Cody and craig discussed a variety of topics, including the new control interface, their podcast which covers a range of topics, household chores, and the societal assumptions about gender roles in household chores. They also engaged in a theological conversation about the historical context of Jesus, the Christmas story, and the concept of Jesus as a nonviolent resistor. They touched on the historical and mythical elements of the Christmas story, the financial and sporting implications of a high-profile player's transfer, their finances and future plans, music, making fruitcake, and casual conversations about classic Christmas movies and action figures.
We also spent some time trying to pronounce the Latin term for the third Sunday of Advent, gaudete.
It’s pretty close. Here are a few of the links to things that were discussed:
NCAA Volleyball tournament: https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2023
Shohei Ohtani’s payout: https://theathletic.com/5126812/2023/12/11/shohei-ohtani-contract-10-numbers-dodgers/?source=user-shared-article
ActionAid Sweden and the Christmas Goats: https://youtu.be/ELvsokKcydM?si=VE7dMZPr6y9lP0qG
Fruitcake, by the Superions: https://open.spotify.com/track/2KsftzifufXI5ukgcfis77?si=3b826cbf58364e60
Wet Bandits, by The Home Alones: https://open.spotify.com/track/12XnacmXLpsZFE1yn84XDS?si=ca5fa6b06ddd4226
And, especially since it is chilly outside here in North America, support us through Patreon so we can have a warm cup of tea or coffee.

As we open up, we’re watching the new captioning tools on Zoom and noticing a few errors, or might they be more correct than we know? To quote Zoom captions: “profound things will be sad…”
Craig and Cody talked about sports, with a focus on volleyball and hockey, and a look at the ranking of sports based on player salaries. Cody talked about Advent music, focusing largely on nontraditional (i.e. not in hymnals) songs.
Follow the NCAA Volleyball tournament at:
Where to watch: https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38992406/how-watch-2023-ncaa-women-volleyball-championship-espn
Find the bracket: https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2023

Common Hymnal – Humble People
The Hound + The Fox – What Child is This/Child of the Poor
Tracey Thorn – Joy
Dave Bazan – I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Alana Levandoski – First Advent
 
 
Starting off, though, continuing the conversation about theological assumptions, Cody and Craig talked about the proper order of themes for Advent. Here are some possible themes:
What is the proper order of Advent themes and why?
a. Joy, Peace, Love, Hope
b. Hope, Justice, Peace, Joy
c. Peace, Peace, Peace, Peace
d. Faith, Hope, Joy, Love, Light
e. Prophecy, Promise, Fulfillment, Faith
f. Signs, Saviors, Serpents, Song
g. Waiting, Preparing, Singing, Laboring
h. wear, wash, rinse, repeat
What do you think would be the best?
Login to Patreon and give us a boost, if you will. Also, make sure to rate, like, and share our podcasts. We do all this on a shoestring budget (both money and time are scarce).

We continue talking about the nature of assumptions we carry in our theology, with a slight nod to James Fowler’s stages of faith. What would your present theological understanding say to your 20-yr old theological self? What makes it change? Fowler noted that there are some folks who don’t get beyond their early faith, and then live on with assumptions that resist maturing. Here’s a little cheat-sheet on Fowler’s ideas: https://www.ngumc.org/files/fileslibrary/james+fowlers+stages+of+faith.pdf
Popular Sports
Craig quizzes Cody’s sports knowledge on the popularity of global sports. And together, we realize we have no idea how cricket works! Let us know. We’re willing to learn. https://aeonledlighting.com/2023/07/top-world-sports/
Make-up or Break-up Church Edition?
We took off on a tangent conversation about a segment on a local pop music radio station. One Boise’s, 102.7, the hosts do a recurring segment on the Joey and Loren Show, called, “Make-Up or Break-Up.” After listening to a portion of a recent broadcast, we wonder if we should start a church version of make-up or break-up. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joey-and-lauren-in-the-morning/id1481402629  
Let us know if you have been a part of some weird church visits, or have not gone back, or you have witnessed some bad church “first-dates.”
Patreon Support
Support Cody and Craig and their emerging podcast media empire at patreon.com/craigdmorton https://www.patreon.com/craigdmorton