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9 mins read|01/03/26What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? In this episode, we gather for a post-Christmas, post-New Year pastoral debrief. We talk about symbols and meaning, Christmas and holidays, signs and seasons, and how modern churches quietly cleared the path for culture to push Christ out of Christmas without much resistance. We explore the strange and largely arbitrary ways the world measures time, along with the old Adam’s never-ending pyramid project. That is, his need to build meaning upward by effort, progress, and control rather than receive it as a gift. From there, we return to symbol and meaning. We ask why ancient liturgy’s nostalgia or ornamentation, but the distilled shape of reality itself, why the Lord’s Supper isn’t a side practice, but the beating heart of the Church, of worship, and of the Christian life. And why stories’ decorations for faith, but the way truth takes on flesh and finds us where we actually live. This is a conversation about time, worship, memory, and why the Church invents meaning but receives it again and again at the table.
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9 mins read|12/20/25Going Cold Turkey at Christmas? In this episode, we read G.K. Chesterton’s essay, On Christmas, wherein he discusses celebrating Christmas too early, vivisection, vegetarians versus turkeys, and what to do about the poor at Christmas. It’s another curmudgeonly Christmas episode with one of our favorite British apologists and satirists.
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9 mins read|12/13/25I’m Wasted, and I Can’t Find My Way Home. In this episode, we again invite C.S. Lewis to teach us about Christmas. We also discuss the early church fathers, worship, symbolism, mystery, Freud and Jung’s influence on modern Christians, consumerism and gift-giving, and, of course, Christmas: all this and much, much more on this episode of the podcast.
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9 mins read|12/05/25Pagan Neart, Christian Soul. In this episode, we read C.S. Lewis’ “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans.” Why does the post-Christian person need to become pagan again to be prepared to hear the gospel? How has a mechanistic view of nature led us to kill each other? Why do we reject the good news that Jesus ended the need for guilt-offerings, sin-sacrifices, and fear about the afterlife? What happened as a consequence of moderns pushing heavenly truth out of the material world? What is the message of Christmas that offers a cure for all that ails us?
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10 mins read|12/21/24That’s How Love Goes. In this episode, we read a Christmas sermon by Norman Nagel and discuss the nativity, the mother of God, iconography, Bible translating, story-telling traditions, teaching through the story, God’s strange way of loving people, and people’s expectations of Christmas and how it affects the Church.
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10 mins read|12/22/23The God Who Stole Christmas. In this episode of Banned Books, we discuss Christmas Eve and Christmas Day readings, prayers, hymns, and traditions. We also have a lot of fun jesting and critiquing time-held hymns and traditions. We talk translations, history, worship, and why Christmas is the best time to embrace the enchanting absurdity of Jesus — the God-in-the-flesh, who’s come to be a Light in the darkness, a shield against sin, the world and the devil, and the Door opened and welcoming us into eternal life.
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8 mins read|12/11/23All Day and All of the Night. In this episode of Banned Books, we discuss Advent and the second coming of Jesus Christ while reading a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Along the way, we talk about the symbols and meaning of Christmas, how preaching a biblical sermon doesn’t mean it’s a gospel sermon, and why that matters, all with an extra echo for dramatic effect.
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6 mins read|12/21/22Let’s Not Talk About Love. In this episode, we discuss R.C. Sproul’s Christmas sermon wherein he preaches on the Gospel of Luke chapter 2. The espresso kicked in early, and we read through the whole sermon before diving deep into the distinction between exposition and proclamation, so buckle up. Riley talks too much while Gillespie exercises patience and restraint.
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6 mins read|12/19/22Is It Too Early for Jesus’ Birth? In this episode, we read excerpts from various early church fathers on Jesus’ birth, with a heavy emphasis on the historicity of God’s incarnation. What part did earthly signs play in announcing Jesus’ birth? Why did it matter to the early fathers that God was born on an actual day, in an actual place, at an actual time? Do we at the present place the same emphasis as the early fathers on Jesus’ birth?
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6 mins read|12/16/22It’s Addressed To You. Open It! In this episode, we discuss Martin Luther’s sermon on Luke 2 for Christmas afternoon. What’s the consequence of the “to you” and “for you” of Luke’s Gospel message for Christians?
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6 mins read|11/24/22They Call Me… Tim. In this episode, we discuss Tim Keller’s sermon, The Purpose of Christmas. Does it matter that Jesus’ birth is a historical fact? What’s the difference between an eyewitness account and a legend? What are we really preaching at Christmas, and why should anyone care?
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4 mins read|12/17/20Can We Just Have A Civil Christmas? In the episode, what was Christmas like during the Civil War? Puritans, holiday traditions, and why the Church is an incarnate Church.
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