The OddFather Podcast

‘I love you because…’ and therefore, Chris and Pete wonder, isn’t love a transaction? Can we love without transactions? What is selfless love, if we are selfish people? Is there something in our relationships that means we are always in a self-serving, transactional place and do we test God’s love, transactionally? If you do this… But what about unconditional love?

Chris and Pete get excited by a really stupid question. Was Jesus ever bored? Is it actually a stupid question? Is there any value in Boredom and what is it like in our modern world? Is it worth just slowing down in our walk with a Jesus who never rushes. Was Jesus a mischievous child? Was he a weird kid? And what do we lose by being busy? Can we be bored like Jesus?

Chris and Pete may seem uncultured, but they like to think that culture really matters. Is church culture really helpful and what happens when it’s not? Can ‘Our’ church welcome ‘them’? How hard is it to share our cultures, and who is doing all this work? Are we missing out on the joy of other cultures because it’s too hard?’

Chris and Pete have been getting grumpy at the socially mediated world because that’s how it’s made. Don’t we love to be outraged? Is it our God given right? Who gives us the right to be outraged and why do we let others unload their venom in our faces? Is there a good way to respond to the outrage of others and our own outrage? What happens when we DON’T respond to outrage?

After a couple of thousand years of the bible, Chris and Pete are still baffled by the stories in it. Just like the original hearers of Jesus were? Why did Jesus seek to deliberately baffle us? Can’t he just tell us stuff instead of hiding in parables? Are stories important and if so, why? And how do we get it? Can we ever understand it?

Chris and Pete try to get a handle on humility. Do Christians think they’re pretty good; Made in the image of God, His children? But also getting down on ourselves? So are other people better than us, like the bible tells us? How can we be good for others and not just good for ourselves? Do I even WANT other people to be better than me? And shouldn’t all this God stuff be easy?

So if all this church stuff about God is true and God loves us… why? Why does God love humans? Or does he? And if he does, what’s in it for God? Is it all just warm feelings? What if that’s NOT what God is all about?

Can we live in peace? A follow up to #73 when Chris and Pete looked at peace and comfort, Is Peace innate in our lives? Is it natural? Can we deal with difference and have differences and find the peace within? How?

After 74 episodes, how are Chris and Pete coping with not knowing? Is there value in being ignorant, especially when you’re leading a prayer meeting? Can we not know stuff and still be wise and helpful?

Do we want peace that is comfortable? Chris and Pete wonder if comfort is something we get wrong. Has our language derailed the truth of what we should be looking for? Does comfort work in our broken world, and how do we look for it in a way that actually works?

In the last of our ‘Bathroom session’ Chris and Pete stumble on some really hard-hitting questions. What if you never asked God for ‘stuff’? What else is there? Can I trust just enough for today? Are we happy to ask God to be harsh with us, and is God my ‘mate’? How does God, as my coach, want me to play his game of life?

In the next of our ‘Bathroom sessions’, Chris and Pete once again suffer from Pete’s poor recording and yet still manage to discuss some pretty cool things! Like whose rules rule the church? What happens when we don’t agree? What if your church is wrong and the world is right? Is the bible mythology? Is it even a book?

In the second of our ‘Bathroom series’ with the odd sound, Chris and Pete ask what would it be like if we talked to God the way we talk to our partner? Who is a hugger? Why don’t Aussie blokes do well at intimacy, and how can we be better at it?

This one sounds a bit odd, Sorry folks! The discussion gets very interesting as Chris and Pete doubt things! Miracles, Belief, The Bible? What do we think about faith when everything is changing? Can we be wrong and faithful, can we find truth when it’s not… what does deconstruction show about what we think?

Are Chris and Pete generous… for their own benefit? Is giving, a useless drop in the ocean? What if we want to make a difference with our generosity? Are we lookin at it wrong, aren’t we meant to be ‘you all’ not just ‘you’? Is it even possible to give without being selfish?

Chris and Pete talk about storytelling, how we all do it differently, and how weird we all are. So how can we talk about what matters? Can we communicate well when everyone else is so completely different? Is there more to our diversity? Does difference make a difference?

Chris and Pete ask ‘who’s minding the flock!’ Why is Chris breaking the sheep’s legs? Do sheep run off or do we just get distracted? How much should we follow the flock, or should we just be looking after ourselves?

Chris and Pete get into sport with the question “Do you love the diversity?” And why don’t churches love it? What if difference is essential to a good life? So what do we see about God’s plan when we play sport? Is it vital to have people on your team who don’t play the way you do? Can we join the isotonic sports faith?

Journalist and broadcaster Richard Aedy leads us into a simple question; What is the meaning of life? Is awareness why we exist, or is there more to it? Perhaps we have all missed a fundamental point about why we exist?

Chris and Pete talk about their fave version of the bible and ask what happens when we re-iterate and re-frame the bible and why is there so much complexity there? Can we remove it? Do we need to hear from more than just the bible?

Chris and Pete love a bit of science and science is replicable. The same experiment gets the same results, that sort of thing. But what about faith, the bible, and God? Is it the same for us all? Nope. Here they check out the work of Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han who reckons knowing stuff makes it hard for us to work together in communities. Have we started to lose ourselves in facts?

There’s all these bits in the bible where people bless God, but what have I got that god needs? What is a blessing for God? Chris and Pete return to the love Dog and see if they can unpack this bizarre twist… how do the blessed ones bless the one who blesses us? Can we be the unknowing and irrelevant ones?

Chris and Pete unfurl another of those curly questions. Did God create Evil? Are bad things hand crafted by the loving creator of the universe, was badness? Have we humans given evil a face, made it into a thing, or is it something else? Are Dark, Cold, and Evil merely absences and what does it matter to us?

Chris and Pete pull the cork on an event that has torn apart churches and communities for generations, when Jesus turned water into wine. What was he thinking?! They ask what it means to us today. Did Jesus get folks drunk? Is he okay with wine? Or are we just doing what we want and deliberately misrepresenting things?

Chris and Pete crack open the ancient poetry book and read from the 13th century a poem that suggests we should all be whining dogs. Is that a useful thing? How do we see ourselves? And what happens if we rethink that?