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How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? How many popes could exist simultaneously? These are the sorts of questions that the Scholastics wrestled with. What the answers actually are to those questions are less important than how they arrived at those answers, and as we will see, having those answers proved to be more important than we might think!

For the last couple of years around mid October, Abby has shown me this video of a woman staring into the camera saying, "The ballerinas are rehearsing for the Nutcracker, that means your year is over." And she's exactly right. Once the Sugar Plum fairy has been decided the rest of the year is run at double speed, finishing one party only to feel behind on the fundraiser, and if you haven't solidified all of your plans back in September of last year, you are doomed to rushed plans, half-baked cookies, and going trick or treating in whatever costume was still left on the shelf (probably a cat or Olaf). It is difficult to enter into this season of the year without a sense of panic that the year is coming to an end, and in an election year there is an additional sense of panic that maybe the country is coming to an end, too, and that's only if you can get past all the AI news which tells you that there is possibly a 10% chance that the WORLD is coming to an end (or at the very least Europe). So how do we get to the end of the year without cowering in a corner, breathing into a paper bag? Peter tells us.

In this episode of the podcast, we celebrate the Reformation by looking at what the Reformation recaptured about the Lord's Supper.

This is one place where it looks like Paul isn't following his own advice. Paul starts on the one end saying, don't get involved in following controversies that are divisive, and then turns around and tells us to divide from people that do this! What is going on? Paul is a careful writer, and the Holy Spirit is behind him, so this isn't some mistake he has made. It represents something that we have to think through carefully and apply with wisdom. As we get into this passage, we will see that once we understand what the terms are, we have a much better idea about how to apply this. We want to defend unity with all we have, but it has to be a unity based on a shared understanding of the truth of the gospel.

How do you view tomorrow? With dread or hope? There's one thing that I noticed about my generation the other day. I was watching a video of a guy who couldn't be more than thirty who already was talking about nostalgia for the past. Some things made sense, staying at grandparents house, Christmas lights when they weren't all colorless LEDs. These are things I think we all miss. But the video went on to make the point that at the end of the day, things end. All one can do is to grab hold of the current moment, the things that will be nostalgic later, savor those things, and one day when you are older, you will look back fondly on these days, the little hugs, the sports day at the park, the ballet recitals, the family trips across the country, finally nailing that promotion, the graduation days, and so on. That can seem hopeful. Maybe even relaxing to hear that these are the days you will look back on, but you know what? It's not. In fact, hearing that this is as good as it is going to get is something better to not think about. You're telling me it is a little bit more uphill, and after that the only thing I have to look forward to in life is how much of it I get to look back on? The destination is realizing how far away I am from what i enjoyed? Titus has a far better hope than that.

What does Pope Innocent the III have to do with the celebration of 250 years of America? More than you might think as we make our way into the 12th-13th century of church history. Where are we in this time? Well, much of what we see today in Roman Catholicism is set up during this time.

How does Jesus' work on the cross get to you? Have you ever wondered that? I mean, consider what kind of question that is. My wife and I love watching a show where they evaluate antiques, and one of the first questions they ask is "How did you come to possess this?" So I ask you, "How did you come to possess eternal hope?" Consider what you are claiming. We here in the Church claim to have adoption papers from God. We in the Church claim that our whole life's worth of sin has been paid for by Jesus dying two thousand years ago. We claim that the power of sin has been broken in our lives. We claim that we have the right to a place in heaven in the throne room of God Himself as an inheritance. How did you come to possess this? You might answer, "I asked," which isn't wrong, but it is incomplete. How did you come to possess salvation? The Holy Spirit delivered it to you.

Today we look at a very tumultuous century and a half in Church history. Who rules over who? Is it the pope over the Holy Roman Emperor? The reverse? Also, the Church goes to war now??

What comes to mind when you hear the words, gentle, courtesy, and submission? You probably don't think of a strong person, do you? We tend to think that strong people are brash, tell-it-like-it-is people. Yeah, they may not be gentle people, but when was the last time you saw someone gently get things done? But this is what Paul is calling us to be in our Christian lives.

Tonight, we look at the Great Schism of 1054!

Do you ever go back and think about how different your life could have gone if just a couple key decisions went differently? If you missed the event where you met your spouse, if your acceptance letter got lost before going to the mail, if the timing was just a little different for your children coming along. Any of these things would have had a profound effect on your life that you can trace. We can work out those implications pretty easily. But today, we are going to look at the most profound event in your history, my history, and the history of the world, the arrival of Christ. This one event has shaped you more than your decision to get married or to have children has had on your life. Or at least, it should. So Christ has appeared, And today we are going to look at Christ's appearing as the purpose of history, and What that real history means for us today

If you were to imagine your life in a storybook, what kind of story would it be? Would it be a comedy where everything turns out right in the end for the main character (i.e. yourself)? Is it a tragedy where surely everything is going to go wrong for you? Or is it going to be something in the middle? This passage gives us a peak into what kind of story that we are in, but the most revealing is that we are not the main character. It actually isn't my story, but I still have a significant part to play in it. So do you.

What does Islam have to do with Church history? Quite a lot, as we will see in this installment of Church History 101!

God needs women in His Church just as much as He needs men. At creation, He made both in his image, and even in perfection, both were needed. He made us different for a reason, but those differences are often unappreciated by both sexes, particularly women by men. The critical work done by women often goes unnoticed. We see disciples of Pentecost but not women who joined them in prayer. We see St. Augustine's works, and not Monica prayers for her boy's salvation. But God notices.

Church History returns as we wrap up the period of Ancient Church History and anticipate the rise of Rome!