In Mid-faith Crisis 330, Joe and I – together in the same room for once – talk about getting older, about becoming an ‘adult of God’, and what our new roles might be in the future years. [Mid-faith Crisis Episode 330: Growing old disgracefully] I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of ‘elders’ recently. Mainly because I am one now. Or, at least, I aspire to being one. In our society today the idea of elders is rather looked down.
Out now
Mid-faith Crisis 330: Growing old disgracefully
Out now: Mid-faith Crisis 329: ‘A certain against energy’
This is a bit of a curious episode, because we’re revisiting material that we recorded and wrote almost eight years ago. Following on from my recent article on the Council of Nicea, Joe suggested that we come up with our own creeds, forgetting that we’d done it in August 2017. In Mid-faith Crisis episode 22, ‘The schism starts here’ we actually listed our personal statements of faith. So I thought, eight years on, it would be interesting to return to those, have a look at what we wrote and talk about whether we still agree with it.
This month(ish) marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, from which we get the Nicene Creed. I wrote a thing about it for Christianity Magazine.
It’s one of those episodes this week, where we talk about everything from the ethics of slug control, to the 1700th anniversary the council of Nicea, to Ezekiel’s advice on how to live during times of exile (basically Keep Holy and Carry On). In one, apparently random bit I talked about how the big story of the Bible is made up of loads of little stories of exactly the same shape.
After my limited input last week, this time it’s my turn to give my – belated – thoughts on Easter. I’ve been thinking that it’s not so much about the doctrine but about the story. We are invited to inhabit the story of Jesus, to allow his life to give shape to our own. The early church understood that: baptism was a richly symbolic re-enactment of life, death and resurrection. Believers took off their clothes, went down into (and under) the water and rose again.
It’s the Easter Special! Well, half an Easter Special maybe. Because I was sick with the flu, it’s a shortened episode. But never fear, it’s Pastor Joe to the rescue, reflecting on how the Easter story of suffering, bewilderment and joy is a challenge to us to live all of life. I loved what he said about the disciples on the Emmaus road. Maybe like them things haven’t worked out how we imagined.
I have the flu, so I watched Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. On the whole, the flu is a more pleasant experience.
In a recent episode of the mid-faith crisis podcast, we touched a little on the development of Easter as a celebration. How was it celebrated in the early church? When did it expand into Holy Week? What did they actually do? The first thing to say is that Easter, like baptism, is older than the church itself. Easter, of course, is the English name and comes from much later. In Greek it is called Pascha That’s because it originates with the Jewish festival of Passover.