Thank you to everyone for tuning into today’s Pop Culture Pastors Hour! What a rich film… We went everywhere from Christian Nationalism to Rick Astley, and there was stuff we didn’t even get to!

A few items referenced:

Christ and Culture (book), H. Richard Niebuhr

Disobedient Women (book), Sarah Stankorb

The Four Shapes of Transformation, Richard Rohr

See you in January, for discussions of Pluribus (AppleTV+) and Lord of the Rings. Please note that moving forward, we’ll be hosting these conversations at our Pop Culture Pastors Hour dedicated feed. Subscribe there for all the latest.

Here’s last Sunday’s sermon on Matthew 2:13-23. Synopsis: Herod was an awful dude who killed lots of people and if anything, the scripture undersold what a brutal paranoid tyrant he was. But all is not lost, because maybe it also undersold the other side?

Hat tip to Howard Thurman’s The Work of Christmas, and Carrie Newcomer’s story about Christmas in the bar at 2 a.m. Also my friend Chris Tuttle of Westminster Presbyterian in Durham NC for his research into Herod, much of which came from the book Jerusalem: A Biography.

Thanks for listening. Steady on.

Thank you Michael Moore, Marion Hardwick, Capitol Jill, and many others for tuning into our latest episode! Our lists of favorite pastor portrayals (and two dishonorable mentions) ran the gamut from cozy book series to acerbic satire and everything in between.

Join us Wednesday 12/31 at 11 a.m. for a discussion of the movie that inspired today’s conversation: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, available on Netflix. Here’s the link to join us.

And if you haven’t, check out our dedicated Pop Culture Pastors Hour page, where we’ll be putting all of these conversations (once we work out some kinks).

Happy New Year!

Hello, Blue Roomies!

Today, a sermon based on Matthew 1:18-25, Joseph’s dream.

“Poor Joseph. It’s only once every three years, when we’re in the book of Matthew, that we even hear anything about Jesus’ earthly father. Every other year, Joseph is basically a donkey jockey and a travel agent. And it’s the final Sunday in Advent when this story appears, when Christmas is so close we can taste the eggnog, when the energy in the room is vibrating, whether with excitement at what’s to come, or stress over too much to do, or tension over complicated relationships, family members long gone, and the baggage that often comes from this holiday. The timing of this story doesn’t lend itself to deep consideration of this quiet giant of the faith.

But that’s what he is.”

~

And here’s a link to the Nate Bargatze sketch I started with. Wonderful!

Steady on.

Oh what fun! Thanks everyone for tuning into this latest episode with Edward Goode, where we took up six holiday classics and tried to wrestle some deeper meaning from them. Some were definitely easier than others! The complete list of candidates is below, so you can play your own game of Will It Preach.

Here’s the link to the Christmas Carol article Ed mentioned: The Heresy of a God Who Hates Empathy.

Coming up in future PCPH episodes, specific dates to be announced:

* End of December: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)

* Early January: Pluribus (Apple TV+)

* End of January: Lord of the Rings extended edition (coming to theaters again!)

The complete list of holiday content—listen to the episode for which ones were chosen by our nifty online spinning wheel!

Songs:

* 12 Days of Christmas

* Last Christmas

* Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

* Santa Baby

* My Favorite Things

Movies:

* Home Alone

* Die Hard

* A Christmas Story

* Love Actually

* Elf

* Muppet Christmas Carol

* Christmas Vacation

* Nightmare before Christmas

TV:

* Carol of the Bells - Ted Lasso Christmas Episode

* Rankin Bass Christmas Specials

* In Excelsis Deo - West Wing episode

Thanks to all who tuned into the latest episode with Edward Goode! We talked about this most iconic of holiday specials, celebrating its 60th birthday this year. Those little kids look great for their age.

We discuss commercialism, Christmas melancholy, tradition v. traditionalism, and more.

A few references from the episode:

Advent for the Troubled Soul, Winn Collier

Why ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ almost didn’t air − and why it endures

Next week on Pop Culture Pastors Hour! A holiday grab-bag edition, featuring a game called “Will It Preach?”, in which we’ll randomly choose a handful of holiday-related songs and specials to try to wrestle some kind of deeper message out of them. See you next Thursday December 11 at 11 a.m. EST. Link to join.

Hello Blue Roomies!

Sneaking this in before Advent officially begins—one last moment with Christ the King Sunday. Here’s last Sunday’s sermon preached at Trinity Presbyterian, Herndon VA. Scripture text was Luke 23:33-43.

Podcast listeners: would love the quick favor of a share, rating or review on the app of your choice! It helps others find the Blue Room pod.

Steady on.

Hello and gobble gobble!

“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” doesn’t loom as large as some of the other Peanuts holiday specials. But Edward Goode and I found a lot to say about authenticity, tradition, and expectation, and the dangers of triangulation. Plus: Franklin’s amazing ‘fit.

A few items we mentioned during the episode:

‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ marks its 50th anniversary — how has it held up? (NPR)

Gratitude, Grace, and Relationship (Center for Action and Contemplation)

And don’t miss Ed’s excellent post from this morning, that connects with some of what we talked about:

Happy Thanksgiving!