Rector’s Cupboard Podcast

"These Spoons are Brutal!"...and “The Entire Year Got Sucked Up and Disappeared”

Mid-April is a good time to release this episode of the Cupboard that was recorded on January 22nd, 2020. A hosts only episode in which we talk about helpful truths, terrible sorrow and some of the best most ridiculous things ever.
You can hear in our voices the “time before” the 2020 pandemic. How different do things sound already? You can hear pointed out the emptiness of the “prosperity gospel” that continues to be a blight upon the theological landscape in our time of pandemic and is beginning to directly cost lives.
Perhaps best of all, you can hear life and hope, even as we talk about Paris Hilton cooking lasagna. You might do well to enjoy the video yourself right now, it’s in the notes below.
Hosts; Todd Wiebe, Ken Best, Allison Williams, Ken Bell and Producer Rick
Enjoy the episode.
Recorded at Woods Spirit Co. in North Vancouver
https://www.thewoodsspiritco.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayImIgdgLEI

Sanctification Without Fear with Dr. Jeff and Susan McSwain

This episode, Rector's Cupboard speaks with Jeff and Susan McSwain about sanctification and spiritual growth.  
In evangelical circles, sanctification has often been more about self than it has been about God. As a theologian, Jeff outlines a healthier view of sanctification from the theology of Karl Barth (and from Christian Scripture). The concept is that as we are justified in Christ, so we are sanctified in Christ, not of our doing. This means that we are not better than anyone, not divided from anyone by our faith.
We talk about this idea in general and in the context of the work and vocation of Jeff and Susan at Reality Ministries and North Street Neighbourhood.
This episode opens with a host conversation recorded at about week 3 of the COVID lockdown. If you want to skip to the McSwain interview, it starts at 35:23
But hey, you’ve maybe got some time these days to listen to the whole episode. The host conversation is not sombre or depressing. We speak realistically, but hopefully about what we are facing right now.
Jeff and Susan are the founders of Reality Ministries, in Durham, NC (founded 2007). Reality Ministries fosters friendships amongst people of all abilities marked by mutuality, authenticity and the reality of Christ’s love for all. 
Susan currently serves as the Executive Director. Jeff is the Theologian in Residence. He has published various articles and two books, Movements of Grace: The Dynamic Christo-Realism of Barth, Bonhoeffer and the Torrances (2010), and most recently ‘Simul’ Sanctification: Barth’s Hidden Vision for Human Transformation (2018).
Keen to stay at the interface between systematic theology and practical ministry, in the last ten years Jeff and Susan have helped plant a new church and launch the North Street Neighborhood, an intentional community (17 houses) near downtown Durham where people of various abilities share life together.
 
Episode Terminology:
 
Systematic Theology: The academic discipline of theology with the perspective that theology can be divided into areas of particular study. The study of the Holy Spirit, the study of salvation, etc.
 
The Patristics: Often called Desert Fathers. Considered to be early influencers in Christian thought and teaching.
 
Sanctification: The area of theology having to do with moving from sinfulness to discipleship/wholeness. Follows from justification, being made right; sanctification implies a being made whole. For Jeff McSwain (among others) sanctification is a divine effort rather than a human effort.
 
Articles, books, and links referenced in this episode:
Jeff’s Website
Reality Ministries Website
ABC news story on North Street Neighbourhood 
Harvard Business Review Grief Article, March 2020
New York Times Article, April 2020 
CNN Video - Churches stay open, April 4, 2020 
The Plague - Albert Camus, 1947
John Swinton book – Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship, 2016
The Road to Now Theology podcast episode with Jeff and Susan McSwain

That All Shall Be Saved with David Jennings

This episode of “The Rector’s Cupboard” was recorded in late January 2020.
The Cupboard welcomes guest David Jennings. David is a corporate lawyer in Vancouver and a lay theologian and student. David is a leader within the Presbyterian Church in Canada and Chairs or sits on the Board of many organizations including Image Journal and The Vancouver School of Theology. David is a philanthropist who encourages and facilitates thoughtful theological conversation and supports the arts and the artistic expression of Christian faith.
In this episode we talk with David about the concept of Christian Universalism.We do this by speaking about a recent book by David Bentley Hart. The book is entitled, “That All Shall Be Saved” and it makes the argument from Christian Scripture and history that the proper Christian eschatological (how things end) understanding is that in the end, no one is condemned to eternal punishment or torment.
If you like your hell, that is, if you are convinced it is entirely un-Christian to believe in anything other than eternal damnation (Hart calls you an “infernalist”) then listen to this episode only if you are okay in engaging with thought and interpretation that is different than yours. Then again, you want people who don't agree with you to listen to you sometimes.
If you have struggled with trying to reconcile a God of love, as shown in Jesus Christ, with the idea of eternal damnation for anyone at all, then listen expectantly.
We hope that you know by now, Rector’s Cupboard seeks to have conversations of hopeful faith and theology. You may never have even known that there have been Christians, since the dawn of Christian history who have held to a view different than the infernalist view.
David Jennings is clearly one of those in our time. You don’t have to agree with all that is said. We don’t have to agree with all that is said. We are convinced about the hopeful conversation and no longer impressed with the fearful calls of “Danger! Danger!”
Enjoy!
 
Episode Terminology:
 
Orthodox Spectrum: The range of ideas and interpretations considered valid.
 
3 Transcendentals: 3 things that are often thought to communicate the divine, the higher than – goodness, beauty and truth.
 
Limited atonement: The interpretation that the sacrifice of Jesus has led to the salvation of some people (those who have chosen to believe it).
 
Universalism: Wide variance of aspects to universalism, basically that in the end; all things will be redeemed, made new.
 
Materials referenced in this podcast:
Aaron Rodgers clip
That All Shall Be Saved, David Bentley Hart
Image Journal
 
This episode we enjoyed a flight of beer from House of Funk Brewing in North Vancouver. 

Entering a COVID Spring

As we traveled to record an episode of the Cupboard, we listened to our Prime Minister advise that "If you can stay home, stay home". So maybe we won't be gathering for some time. At least not in person.
 
We are in the midst of, at the beginning of, the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic.
 
Already we are used to the terms, "social distancing", "self-isolating", "flatten the curve".
 
On March 16, 2020 we talk about how we are feeling, how so many are feeling.  If hope is real, we will long to know hope even in uncertain times. We will know hope, even in uncertain times.
 
Best to you and to those you love as you live through this crisis. It's a time like we've never lived before. And as so many are saying, "we're all in this together".
 
National Geographic article discussed in the episode;
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/reference/european-history/plague-doctors-beaked-masks/

Tragic Optimism, Moving from Fear to Hope with Dr. Lynn DuMerton

The Cupboard is joined this week by guest Dr. Lynn DuMerton.  
 
We speak with Dr. DuMerton about her work helping moms who struggle with addiction and judgment and fear, to bond with their young children.
 
Lynn helps run the Sanctuary programme at Union Gospel Mission. The programme works with moms and their children aged 0-6.
 
Through a consideration of this programme and a consideration of Lynn's previous work on "tragic optimism" we look at how fear can come to motivate so much of our thought and action. Tragic optimism (having a sense of hope even in circumstances of suffering) is marked by a number of factors including acceptance that we will face difficulty, and that such sorrow or suffering is not fairly manifest. We consider self-transcendence, the concept that we often find hope in the process of helping others, in the perspective of seeing their pain.  Lynn mentions, that in her work helping moms bond with their children, it is important to help remove fear as a motivator. She points out that healthy bonds cannot be established if the child is scared of the parent.
 
Have we grasped this yet as a theological concept? Why do we often think that being scared of God is a good thing? How can we work out better theological concepts and healthier bonds in our spiritual lives?
 
We begin the episode with a consideration of Covid 19 fear around the world.  The article we discuss can be found at:
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/coronavirus-canada-stockpiling
 
We speak with Lynn about a hockey programme in a First Nations community in Manitoba. For information about this programme follow the link below: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/hockey-survived-peguis-first-nation-home-team-heroes/
 
This episode of the Rector's Cupboard was recorded at North Point Brewing in North Vancouver.
https://www.northpointbrewing.com

Sexuality and Hope with Dr. Hillary McBride

The Cupboard welcomes guest Dr. Hillary McBride.
 
Dr. McBride is a Psychotherapist, and host of the CBC Podcast "Other People's Problems" and the Liturgists Podcast.
 
We speak with Hillary about purity culture, scrupulosity, mental health and body image, changing views from one generation to the next. 
 
How is it that when religious culture becomes fearful or controlling or strict, so often the first location of control is over women's bodies? Purity culture has hurt men as well as women, often preventing people from taking steps of maturity and life. The cycle of ignorance, fear, and shame has done terrible damage to so many women and men. Dr. Hillary McBride in her work and in her podcasts and books, offers a better way of understanding, a better way of speaking and even more promisingly, a way of hope. 
 
Episode Terminology:
 
Gnosticism: A philosphical/religious way of seeing the world. For our purposes in this episode the basic consideration is that gnosticism presents a spiritual/earthly (or physical) division. Much of the New Testament is written in contrast and opposition to gnostic thinking which said that Jesus could not have been divine because he had a physical body. The inferior way of seeing the physical also led to some extreme actions as seeing the body as degraded led some to think that any form of expression, including sexually was fine as the body was degraded anyway.
 
Purity Culture: The emphasis/idolatry of sexuality (particularly female sexuality) in some religious circles that led to expressions such as “chastity vows”, etc. This was the conflation of morality and even spirituality to focus upon sexual behaviour (particularly female sexual behaviour).
 
Platonic Thought: From the philosopher Plato, related to gnosticism, Plato presented a spiritual/physical distinction that elevated the spiritual and denigrated the physical. Much of what is considered “christian” is actually platonic as this way of thought pervaded Biblical interpretation and teaching.
 
Jung – (Carl Jung): A branch of psychology, therapy coming to emphasize talk therapy, often a consideration of the conscious and the subconscious together.
 
Original Blessing: Corollary to “original sin”. Some Christian teachers and writers are emphasizing not that we are bad, but that we are blessed. In most cases this is not to deny that we do wrong or that we sin, but that the emphasis is on blessing instead of badness.
 
Divine Immanence: God’s presence is often considered to be expressed in transcendent ways, ways that are above human, spiritual, other than human. The other reality of the presence of God is expressed in immanence, in the here and now, in the physical. Transcendent can mean “far away”, Immanent can mean “close to us”.
 
Many thanks to our recording host House of Funk Brewing, located in North Vancouver, BC.  
 
Rector's Cupboard episode hosts: Todd Wiebe, Allison Williams, Brett Ziegler. 
 
Books and articles discussed in this episode:
 
Hillary McBride's website
Harvey Weinstein Article - NYT, January 2020
Pastor Eaten by Crocodile (not an alligator as Todd said) - Snopes, 2017
9th Grader Expelled - NBC News, January 2020
Ben Greenfield Article – Times of London, January 2020
Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves as We Are - Hillary McBride, 2017
Embodiment and Eating Disorder - Hillary McBride, 2018
Shameless – Nadia Bolz-Weber, 2019
Beyond Shame – Mattias Roberts
You are Your Own – Jamie Lee Finch
Come as You Are – Emily Nagoski
The Purity Myth – Jessica Valenti

No God Forsaken People, No God Forsaken Places with Tim Fretheim

The Cupboard welcomes Tim Fretheim, retired Chaplain at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital at Colony Farms in Coquitlam, British Columbia.
 
One of the tenets of Hopeful Theology is that there are no God forsaken places, there are no God forsaken people. Tim Fretheim has worked with some of the most difficult and troubling “cases”. The Psychiatric Hospital at Colony Farms houses people with psychiatric illness including people who have been deemed not criminally responsible, yet in need of incarceration.
 
Tim has written on the relationship between hospitality and mental illness.
 
We speak with Tim about having hope in a place that many people would rather not think about at all. How does religion and culture so often dehumanize people? What do we do with and for people who have done terrible things?

Most People are Better than their Theology with David Goa

A Conversation with David Goa. 
 
At the All Saints of North America Orthodox Monastery in Dewdney, BC we gather to speak with David Goa. David has said things to us like;
"My goal is to convert evangelicals to Jesus" and "Most people are better than their theology".
 
We talk about a lot of things with David;
conversion and faith
recent events in Iran
the Orthodox understanding of judgment
the nature of truth and how being contentious for truth is a tell that truth has not been tasted
Take your time with this one, or maybe listen a couple of times. David speaks deliberately and at times even slowly, but there is so much in what is being said.  Enjoy!
 
David Goa is a lecturer, speaker, writer, museum curator, etc. He grew up in Canadian Prairies among Norwegian Pietists/Evangelicals.
He became part of the Orthodox tradition of Christian faith in his adult life.
David regularly teaches on hopeful relationship between Christianity and Islam.
 
Track down David's books, other writing, lectures and his own podcast at www.davidgoa.ca.
 
Books and articles referenced in this podcast:
The Christian Withdrawal Experiment - The Atlantic, January 2020  
The Christian Responsibility to Muslims - Lectures by David Goa, 2014 
For The Life of the World – Alexander Schmemann 
After Atheism - CBC mini series, 2014
 
Episode Terminology:
 
Desert Fathers: In the Christian tradition, leaders who pre-figured the monastic movement. Often thought of as hermits (many were actually quite engaged in culture) the Desert Fathers (and Mothers) quit the cities of the day for what is now the Egyptian and Syrian desert where they lived often alone. They became sought after for their spiritual wisdom and were referred to as Abbas and Ammas. 
 
Religious ideology contrasted with actual faith: Religious ideology describes a way of seeing the world and often a way of explaining everything. Faith is something that is lived. Ideology is what leads people within religious or political systems to ask questions like “what is our stance on this?” 
 
Vatican II: The Second Vatican Council was held from 1962-1965. It was a gathering of Catholic leaders to determine the statements and beliefs and practices of the church moving forward. Some consider its conclusions “too liberal”, others see Vatican II as overly conservative in regards to gender, leadership, birth control, etc. A “pre-vatican II” Catholic often describes someone who wishes for the church “as is used to be” in terms of practice and religious and social stance. 
 
Vladika: Means shepherd, a term of somewhat relational or familial authority used in the Orthodox faith.
 
World Council of Churches: A gathering of Christian churches across denominational lines. WCC became part of what is known as “ecumenism”, religious understanding shared beyond denomination. 
 
The Christian East (Orthodox expression of faith): Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc.  - the “Orthodox Church” existed before the Catholic Church. The first church division was this and not the Protestant Reformation. 
 
Dogmatic Theology/Systematic Theology: David speaks of the Orthodox expression of faith as not having a dogmatic or systematic theology. This means that the faith cannot be understood by a set of religious suppositions, but rather can only be expressed as something that is lived. Faith is not something described by a “statement”, but rather something that is lived in relationship. This moves towards what David Goa calls the “theology of the spiritual life” 
 
Christian Patrimony: David uses the term in speaking of our common humanity. The idea is that Christian faith best expressed sees all of humanity as part of the family. 
 
This episode we tasted Prospector Canadian Rye Whiskey from Odd Society Spirits, a small batch distillery in Vancouver, BC.

Christmas Special

Friends of the Cupboard gather in the Advent Season.
 
We talk about the Rankin Bass Christmas specials, particularly the weirdest ones.
 
We consider together how consternation about how people might be getting Christmas wrong turns Christmas into its opposite.
 
Christ came as "Good news of great joy for all people." Christmas might be a mess, but it is a mess that God counted worth redeeming.
 
Hosts Todd, Keith, Ken, Allison, Producer Rick, Special Guests: Showrunner Amanda, Tech and Game Support Gavin.
 
Merry Christmas to all!

Introduction to the Concept of The Hopeful Gospel with Ross Lockhart

Introduction to The Rector’s Cupboard
Introduction to the concept of The Hopeful Gospel
Guest: Ross Lockhart
St.Andrew’s Hall, UBC etc. etc. etc.
Ross has extensive experience in pastoral ministry across denominations. He leads the Centre for Missional Leadership and is truly a funny guy. He has travelled the world, but keeps finding his way back to Ireland. Oh, and a note that is great for podcasting – Ross is perhaps the best dressed professor or minister in town.