Mockingbird is devoted to connecting the Christian message with the realities of everyday life in fresh and down-to-earth ways.
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The Mockingcast Episode 171: “Everybody Loves Dolly” in which RJ, Sarah, and Dave talk generational warfare (“OK boomer”), Sunday morning racial reconciliation, refugee puppetry, and America’s favorite Dolly. Also, Sarah gets bleeped for the first time — but probably not the last. Throughout it all, hope abounds.- Same Old Song “Advent 1 (A): Here We Go Again” in which Jacob and Aaron discuss the readings for the first Sunday of Advent, which are Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, and Matthew 24:36-44.
- PZ’s Podcast Episode 288: GPF. Which concerns the arrival of gratitude and peace at the end of life — or, better, way before the end of life — and the birth of faith for one’s safe “arrival” after death.
10 Best TV Shows of 2019, I’m Assuming
The complete list, from Brian McMillen: Each year, as our society traverses deeper and deeper into the Golden Era of Television, it becomes increasingly important to acknowledge this form of entertainment’s substantial contributions to the zeitgeist. In the year 2019, we saw an abundance of brilliant shows created and conveniently distributed across the streaming platforms […]
Hopelessly Devoted: Romans Chapter Three Verses Nine Through Twelve
This one comes to us from Paul Walker’s “Almost Daily Devotional”: The Third Sunday of Advent has been called “Stirrup Sunday” after the collect’s plea for God to “stir up” his power on our behalf. There’s nothing like a little churchy witticism to get you going on a Monday in mid December. Ecclesial wit aside, the […]
Shooting Blanks: Baby-Making in an Age of Anxiety – Ben Maddison
From our Spring conference in NYC, the following video features Mockingbird contributor Ben Maddison, in a talk about fatherhood and fertility in the 21st century. For more, see his previous work The Weight of Masculinity and Mary Definitely Knew.
Shooting Blanks: Baby-Making in an Age of Anxiety – Ben Maddison from Mockingbird on Vimeo.
Cast Away the Works of Darkness
A little sample from our latest publication, Faith Once Delivered, a collection of sermons from longtime contributor Paul N. Walker. This sermon was originally delivered at Christ Church in Charlottesville, November 28, 2010, for the First Sunday of Advent. William Golding’s 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, remains a piercing and, I believe, accurate judgment […]
Happy Thanksgiving: Store Discounts, New Podcasts, and Mailing List
Happy Thanksgiving one and all! We’ll be taking a few days off to celebrate with our families, so no new content til this coming Monday. But rest assured, we’re not leaving you hanging:
1. In conjunction with a certain upcoming Friday, we’re running a big sale on our Store! 25% off all Robert Capon titles, Churchy, Unmapped, Mockingbird at the Movies, and Mbird T-shirts & bags.
2. Three brand new podcast episodes for you to listen to:
Best way to listen to all of our podcasts, btw, (if you have an OSX device) is via The Mockingapp! Available for free on the Apple App Store.
3. We’ll be sending out our big end-of-the-year newsletter and appeal next week. To get a copy, simply sign up for our Mailing List. Just be sure to submit your full postal address. We can’t do this without you!
4. Click here to peruse our Thanksgiving archives. Lots of gold in them hills.
What We’re Watching and Listening to, November Edition: The Crown Season 3 (and a Couple Other Things)
This contains spoilers from Season 3 of Netflix’s The Crown. Carrie Willard Netflix released Season 3 of The Crown this past week, and there is simply too much to unpack all at once. I’ve been enthralled since Season 1, and again in Season 2. This third season is so very good, and so very rich in […]
PZ’s Podcast: Achilles Heel; They Came from Beyond Space; Listen to the Music; Sine Qua Non; and Julie, Do You Love Me
Episode 283: Achilles Heel It seems that human nature, or rather, one’s understanding of human nature, is the Achilles Heel of theology — and philosophy, too — throughout the “Spin-Me-Round” (Dead or Alive, 1985) of cyclical human history and cyclical failed answers to the problem of being human. If you have a high doctrine of […]
Devotion # 4 – Larry Parlsey (Colossians 1:21-23)
The next video from our gathering in NYC features conference chaplain Larry Parsley. Here Larry addresses shame and the curation of blemishes — and from where we draw our ultimate hope:
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:21-23 NIV)
On Comic Books: Our Commonly Felt Need and the Search for Hope – Kyle Tomlin
Right on time for the new Watchmen series, this video from our recent conference in NYC features commentary on the graphic novel, among other classics. Guided by “God and Comics” co-host Kyle Tomlin, we consider stories of superheroes and what they tell us about who we are, who we think we are, and what we are ultimately longing for. Characters include Superman, Billy Batson, Batman, the Joker, Doctor Manhattan, and others.
On Comic Books: Our Commonly Felt Need and the Search for Hope – Kyle Tomlin
Frederick Buechner’s Bad News
A choice reflection from Frederick Buechner’s Quote of the Day (h/t KW):
The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or just doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen. Henry Ward Beecher cheats on his wife, his God, himself, but manages to keep on bringing the Gospel to life for people anyway, maybe even for himself. Lear goes berserk on a heath but comes out of it for a few brief hours every inch a king. Zaccheus climbs up a sycamore tree a crook and climbs down a saint. Paul sets out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth.
– Originally published in Telling the Truth
Emily Dickinson in Autumn
Besides the Autumn poets sing
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the Haze –
A few incisive mornings –
A few Ascetic eves –
Gone – Mr Bryant’s “Golden Rod” –
And Mr Thomson’s “sheaves.”
Still, is the bustle in the Brook –
Sealed are the spicy valves –
Mesmeric fingers softly touch
The eyes of many Elves –
Perhaps a squirrel may remain –
My sentiments to share –
Grant me, Oh Lord, a sunny mind –
Thy windy will to bear!
(123B, Franklin Variorum 1998)
Image credit: Deng Yingyu
Life, Love and Other Impossibilities: Your Savior is Not You – Nick Lannon
In our next video, Nick Lannon, author of Life Is Impossible (And That’s Good News), speaks at our annual conference. Topics include: asking out a crush, turning your frown upside-down, Saving Private Ryan, the Sermon on the Mount, a tyrannosaur, and a double quarter-pounder with cheese. Bombs away!
Life, Love and Other Impossibilities: Your Savior is Not You – Nick Lannon
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