Season 7; episode 1 Transcript

​00:17.60
Alan
Welcome to soft idolatry season 7 episode 1 our season on epiphany or season of epiphany corissa has it going.

00:30.88
softidolatry
It's going pretty Well, it's a little bit rainy here. But it's been fairly warm so it's good. Good weather for running and and walking in got the new dog to walk and a marathon to train for So I'm grateful for the warmth.

00:45.92
Alan
Ah, yeah, not too bad, um, kind of gray and ugly today not quite as gray and ugly as Christmas day which was rainy and yucky and um, yeah, you know.

00:46.67
softidolatry
About you.

01:04.70
Alan
I can think of christmases in all sorts of weather and ah even the other christmases with bad weather seemed to ah offer good things. You know like if it snows great. It's Christmas it's a white.

01:17.40
softidolatry
Oh.

01:23.35
softidolatry
Right? It's the one acceptable day of the year for snow.

01:24.34
Alan
Christmas there's something romantic about that. Ah yeah, you know if it's if it's really unseasonably warm. That's great and enjoyable to get outside but it was neither cold nor warm. It is. Ah yeah I mean it wasn't pouring rain. But yeah, it was just ah, weird. But then this has been an exceedingly weird year hasn't it.

01:54.49
softidolatry
It really has yeah and even you know these holidays felt a little more normal than than before you know we got together with some family. We've got friends who are in town visiting family every year that come to have a game night with us over Christmas break. And that happened again this year but there was all There's also fewer parties and like everybody is covid testing before getting together with others and so there's still like this weird looming presence over the holiday season that's kind of like the icing on the crap cake that was.

02:30.47
Alan
Yeah, exactly exactly. Um, it's for for those of you who do not have kids and well well for those of you who do have kids from the rest of us who do not when you don't have.

02:30.57
softidolatry
2021 right

02:50.45
Alan
Younger people in your life to anchor you to the present nostalgia just can become deadly this time of year because you remember the christmases when people were together and um I would imagine. A lot of people just felt extra disconnected this year even though we could be back sharing one. Another's company to a certain extent. Um, it's just a reminder was for me a reminder of how far that. Time is in the rearview mirror and so a a dreary day Christmas day for me was about the worst thing imaginable.

03:38.19
softidolatry
Yeah, um, even even with young people in life in life. It was pretty crappy so I can I can only imagine and my yeah, my heart goes out to all of those who who felt even more alone than normal. The holidays can be a lonely season to begin with let alone when it's. Rainy and gray and gross and covid. Yeah.

04:02.20
Alan
So what? what light is dawning on us now.

04:08.13
softidolatry
Yeah there's I mean you can go so many different directions with that I feel like we've beaten the pandemic to death in this podcast but you know we're so even with new variance and things we're slowly but surely seeing new ways of of going about life. So I think that that's that's. Ah, light and in the midst of it. God is still moving and speaking to us right? I know I've heard god speak a lot over this past year whether I liked it or not and mostly I did not sometimes I did but generally it wasn't pleasant. Um, and I think for me one of the the things that was revealed to me that I I saw a new light on was just the variety of ways that god speaks to us I would like for a large blinking billboard. And what I got was more of um, some sort of crazy like word search puzzle that got set on fire halfway through or something like you know, um.

05:17.47
Alan
Ah, ah.

05:22.67
softidolatry
Yeah, epiphanies aren't always like these big bright, beautiful aha moments with a star in the sky. Sometimes they are you know a year or 2 of getting dragged through the mud.

05:34.68
Alan
Or or sometimes they're a year or 2 of ah slow steady growth. You know I um a colleague of mine.

05:43.45
softidolatry
Yeah.

05:52.27
Alan
Said of of her congregation what they need is a therapist more than a pastor and you know I can I can relate and I hear the same thing from lots of colleagues that um, what.

05:57.60
softidolatry
Ah, yeah.

06:10.97
Alan
What they expected ministry to be and what it actually is are so widely different sometimes and you know in this conversation I started to turn back to some of my own epiphanies. You know when I had ah. I had been unchurched for a long time and I drifted back and it was good and then I found a great church in Pittsburgh through through the recommendation of a former pastor I did not just randomly find this place. Um, and. As I got more and more involved it began to make more and more sense intellectually but also just the way it felt the way it felt being in a sanctuary where all of a sudden I felt I got what the pastor was saying and it felt like the people around me. We're getting it too and it was a really powerful experience and it was formational. It was part of what led me to seminary and it was part of how I discerned my call to ministry and it was. You know a process of a couple of years to to get those epiphanies and it was great and I thought that I would be able to help translate those experiences for other people and be there when people wanted to engage. And I find so few people want to engage.

07:47.36
softidolatry
Yeah, that is sad but true. Um, and I think part of it is just you know folks are so busy and stretch so thin that they only have so much to offer and so much energy with which to engage and so. Folks have to be really selective about what they engage in and an old dying institution that quite frankly has been pretty mean throughout the years is not where a lot of people want to throw their their time and energy.

08:19.81
Alan
Right? And um to to beat one of the drums that we typically beat so many of the people in our Pews have been used to pastors doing most of the heavy lifting and they are not used to.

08:33.34
softidolatry
Yeah.

08:39.72
Alan
Calls for change from the pulpit and I think that's why my friend they need a therapist because um, nobody wants to change everybody wants everyone else to change around them but nobody wants to. Take the step of doing that change work and and that's a broad generalization and there are people who understand the need to change but it feels from my end like instead of instead of. Going into the pulpit and teaching and exhorting people to action like they only have the bandwidth for me coming up there and saying it's ok, it's ok, It's ok.

09:32.57
softidolatry
Jesus loves you? yeah.

09:35.87
Alan
Right? And yes that sermon needs to be preached and so do all the other sermons. Um, love your neighbor. Your neighbor is everyone Love your neighbor.

09:43.62
softidolatry
Then who.

09:52.58
softidolatry
Yeah i' also leviticus um and pretty much the rest of the bible. Oh yes, the everyone. Yeah yeah, um, yeah, it's.

09:54.13
Alan
That's it. That's a shout out to the gospel of Luke pretty much but but the everyone is your neighbors particularly Luke.

10:11.25
softidolatry
You know change is hard right? It's really easy to say we need change. We need to be willing to change but it is a really hard process. Um, it's hard to love everyone. Some people really suck and you know it's hard to love them and um, we're called to love them anyway. Even when they're. Not great or they're scary or we don't know them very well or or we don't agree with them or whatever it is but you know epiphany is not necessarily. Not only is it not just necessarily 1 quick aha moment where suddenly you realize something but it's not always. Easy. It can take a long time and I think it can be kind of staged and seasoned right too. So there's um, little epiphanies which within greater epiphanies I was just preparing my I'm preaching on sunday. Pulpit supply actually at your home church Allen I'm going to be filling in there. Ah um, and I was reading through the sermon I want to preach and it talks a lot about some of the places around the world that I have.

11:09.89
Alan
Your kid. Oh you're at 6 Oh great. Ah.

11:22.80
softidolatry
Seeing Jesus and others because that's what epiphany is right? It's seeing Jesus in unexpected places. Um, you know the wise men bringing gifts from the east are very unexpected people to be coming into a jewish place to come see Jesus although they they were probably in Egypt by then but that's a history lesson for another day.

11:26.18
Alan
Um, move.

11:40.15
Alan
Yeah.

11:42.35
softidolatry
Um, that you were about to I saw the look on your face and um, ah yeah, and you know I've I've seen Jesus in a lot of different places but have I ever told you that the story about the first time I ever preached.

11:55.50
Alan
I Don't recall.

11:57.59
softidolatry
Um, and it was kind of like one of those little epiphanies that set off a longer season. It was pre-seminary. Yeah, it was actually pre Gloria. Um.

12:00.67
Alan
Was this preset pre-seminary or okay, oh my. Okay this then then maybe you've never told me this story.

12:12.84
softidolatry
The the first time I ever left the country. It was for short-term medical mission to Guatemala in 2005 in the fall and if you know anything about the fall of 2005 in Guatemala. There were huge mudslides that felt ah, not long after Hurricane Katrina hit the United States storms and mudslides hi Guatemala and that hit about 24 hours before we left for that trip and the trip it changed dramatically the nature of what we were doing there but 1 of the the. Places we were at I have no medical background whatsoever and I was put in charge of a pack of children and anyone who knows me well is. Probably giggling right now because I do not love large groups of small children. Um I will take your teenagers and your college students but please keep your toddlers to yourselves. Um and I was like I don't want to do that and the person in charge of the trip said no this is for you. Today you're gonna preach to these children. It said I don't speak any spanish and they don't speak any english she said it's okay, you speak the Lord's word I'll translate. So um, the first time I ever preached I was plopped down in front of dozens possibly. You know scores of small mayan children who spoke no english and I spoke no spanish and preached extemporaneously with no preparation whatsoever. Um, no warning whatsoever and the whole time I was thinking this is the most ludicrous thing I've ever done in my life. But at the end our translator said. Thank you so much. You really do have god's gift for this. So thank you and that was like a. An epiphany that set off epiphanies right? It wasn't in that moment I knew I was going to be a preacher and a pastor but it set off it sparked something new like I saw the star in that moment and then I went to seminary like ten years later or something like that.

14:26.00
Alan
Wow! good.

14:32.52
Alan
Ah, 6 I think but yeah, that's I've I don't have a great story like that about the first time that I preached but it was definitely as part of seminary I guess maybe I talked.

14:34.41
softidolatry
It took a while Yeah, it took a while.

14:51.53
Alan
In Church at a point. Um, you know, maybe on a youth Sunday but somehow that doesn't entirely count because everyone was talking and yeah, um, ah. But yeah, that's ah, that's one of those wonderful validations of the gift of the talent and it seems like it's easier to find those things before you get ordained and find yourself. A wash and parish life then then after the fact so ah.

15:31.67
softidolatry
When you're still in that wide-eyed dreamer stage. Um, well and I think it's a um I share that one too is an example of sometimes it can be hard to ascertain whether this is really God speaking or not in a moment. And the voice of the community is so important like who has corroborated this for you because if you're just pulling it out of your own hat. Be careful.

15:56.75
Alan
Yeah, Well I mean I think that's one of the great things about the reformed tradition is at least in Theory. There are so many checks and balances out there that um, we we have enough. Ah. Enough other voices saying yes I hear that in you too rather than are you sure? Well I mean they could say that too. But ah we we rather than it just being Ego-d Driven you know, um.

16:23.10
softidolatry
Yeah.

16:35.90
Alan
Hey I'm having this really great experience in church and I can I can lead other people to god in the very same way. That's an ego-d driven response to what might be a very positive set of church relationships but ah just because I felt that. Didn't mean it was a call to ministry and you know I had to validate that with a bunch of other people including a pastor who said you need to do some more discernment work before you decide to apply to seminary and ah so you know I I i. Did that work for a couple of years before I truly ah discerned the call and it was a long process with multiple epiphanies along the way to be sure.

17:25.20
softidolatry
Yeah, um, it just occurred to me. Maybe that's why one of the reasons why it was wise men traveling and not just one wise guy. Um.

17:37.29
Alan
Um, yeah, yeah, how how very reformed of them. Yeah, who.

17:42.51
softidolatry
Yeah, they traveled in Committee they the wise men the match I were clearly Presbyterian because they traveled in Committee they were. They were the commission that came from afar.

17:52.58
Alan
They were yes they were on the committee of gifts. Ah, ah.

18:01.68
softidolatry
Commissioners from presbytery afar. All the presbyterians in the crowd are laughing their butts off right now and the methodists are like you guys are so weird. Yeah well and so.

18:10.92
Alan
Yes, ah.

18:17.36
softidolatry
We We really enjoyed and I think some of our listeners really enjoyed the format that we had last season to the the podcast which was inviting other clergy other pastors and ministers into the conversation we were having. With us so instead of trying to come up with a brand new topic Every single week. We had a brand new guest to talk about the same topic every week and I felt like that was a really rich and helpful exploration at least for me as we were wrestling through some of that and some good Conversations. So we're going to do that again. This season.

18:57.12
Alan
Um, yeah I'm I'm looking forward to having back some of our excellent guests from before and just having new conversation. Partners. This is always great to have this conversation with me and you and we would have this conversation if we weren't on a podcast but we also know some pretty cool people and it's fun to.

19:20.11
softidolatry
Right.

19:30.27
Alan
Hear What they have to say and bounce ideas off of them.

19:31.73
softidolatry
Yeah, so you'll hear hear some familiar voices that you heard in season 6 um, next week we have a voice you haven't heard in a little while on soft idolatry but has joined us before reverend Rebecca Depoe and so she'll be here next week to to join us. And I think that this will be really cool too in our exploration of epiphanies and growth and learning and listening to god because everyone does hear god differently god speaks to different people depending on their. Personalities and passions and place in life and so talking to different people about what that means to them I think will be a really interesting conversation as well over the next the next few months.

20:16.29
Alan
Yeah, and you know we can. We can be pretty much assured that there will still be plenty of turmoil and strife and tumult in our lives Anyhow with a pandemic that continues and. A society that will not uniformly embrace a sensible response to said pandemic and you know, no no shortage of political issues to to talk about. But um. And to look at how our call to follow God is affected by all of those winds around us.

21:01.91
softidolatry
Yes, yeah, it is I've found for me over the past two years so I'm looking at 20202021 and 2020 came in hot for me even before the pandemic because I had that. That trip to central America that just made I came back angry from that trip reverse culture shock is a real thing like reentry shock when you get home from somewhere and that was like mean angry reentry shock after I saw what was going on down there. Um. But like just reflecting on those 2 years I think it was the nature of what was going on in the world both before and during the pandemic that really put me through those fires of epiphany. Yeah, so it'll be interesting too as the pandemic develops. Does whatever it's going to do I don't even pretend to predict these things anymore. It'll be interesting to see what the church learns as a whole what we as as pastors learn what our society learns or doesn't.

22:11.41
Alan
Ah, yes, interesting is 1 word for it. Um, ah yeah, yeah, I yeah I am struggling to I'm struggling to keep it on just an intellectual level.

22:18.62
softidolatry
Terrifying is another.

22:31.23
Alan
Where interesting works.

22:32.62
softidolatry
Yes, yeah, we oh man, it's I think our all of our emotions are so raw and and that does put us in a position where I feel like the spirit can really work through us when we're in a emotionally vulnerable place. Ah, that can bring us into deeper intimacy with God but it does make it really hard to have composure sometimes.

22:56.63
Alan
Well yeah, because you can very easily trick transmit your own anxiety to those you are called to serve and that's particularly a challenge for me because.

23:04.18
softidolatry
Yes.

23:13.75
Alan
Ah, because the anxiety is real and because the anger is real.

23:17.33
softidolatry
And yes, yeah, there's been a lot of anxiety and and anger and I think when we when we talk with with Rebecca next week we're gonna be touching on some of that and some of the epiphanies that have come through some of that a little bit more as well. But yeah, be prepared for a wild ride and. Like we reminded you in our little segue between season 6 and season 7 if you have a story of Epiphany or something that you have learned over the past year or even the past two years right we'll count this whole in 20202021. We're kind of a weird. Slow blur I don't even know how to explain how time both stood still and rocketed through all at the same time and blurred together. But if you have some of those stories feel free to send us an email or even like a voice memo that we can toss into the podcast. Emails info at http://softidolatry.com and if it's something really interesting. You might get a call from us to pop in and and join us as a guest on the show but we would really love to hear from you. What some of your your experiences with epiphanies and learning are over the past year

24:28.59
Alan
Yeah I think that I think that will be a wonderful rich season in the life of our podcast. Anyhow here here's hon. So ah, Carissa would you like to pray us out today.

24:38.25
softidolatry
Here's hope in Anyway, that's the plan.

24:44.57
softidolatry
Sounds great. Friends. Let's pray god of all we thank you that you are constantly teaching us and speaking to us and guiding us by your spirit reveal to us your presence. Over these coming weeks as we reflect on times that we have known deeply of your presence and just help prepare us for whatever the next season of epiphanies and learning happen to be. Guide us and continue to form and mold us we pray these things humbly in the power of the holy spirit in the name of Jesus Christ amen

25:37.60
Alan
Amen.