Awaken Bowness Podcast

Body: The Wisdom of Your Body

Embodiment has often not been a topic for inside of churches. Somehow we've gotten sucked into gnosticism where we think our bodies don't matter at best and are entirely bad at worst. Here we consider the incarnation and embodiment. 
 
If you enjoy this sermon please consider reading Hillary McBride's book The Wisdom of Your Body. 

Advent 2021 Sanctuary

This is a sermon by Pr Nikayla about making a home for one another - the power of finding sanctuary. We reflect on how Mary flees to Elizabeth's house and immediately finds sanctuary. From this place of knowing she's loved, safe, and WELCOME, she stands to proclaim the most revolutionary text in the New Testament. 
 
Have you ever received sanctuary?
Is there someone in your life right now you could give sanctuary to?

Advent 2021: A Home For All

Dallas Loewen invites to consider our "home" as a "home for all" this week. Thank you Advent Team for organizing this! 
 

Advent 2021: Homesick

Thank you to the Advent team for putting together a beautiful Advent season at Awaken. In this first Advent Sunday Nikayla unpacks Luke 21 and Jesus' apocalyptic warning. Jesus tells his followers to look to the Sun, Moon, and Stars and while he warns of fearful comic shifts to the current world order, he says that all of it is towards REDEMPTION. 
 
 

Legends from the Long Road Part 9: Mahlah,Tirzah, Hoglah, Milkah, Noah

Dallas ends the Numbers series with this brilliant exploration of the story about land for the most vulnerable and what it is that we leave behind in the wilderness and what comes into the next land with us. Thank you Dallas!
This episode also contains a Land Acknowledgement with a challenge to renew our commitment the the Treaty for the sake of our descendants and the descendants of all who call this land Home. 

Legends from the Long Road Part 6

In this sermon Pastor Nikayla unpacks Numbers 20 which begins with the death of Miriam and ends with the death of Aaron. In between the death of the two important character is a strange event involving a rock that gushes forth with water after mysteriously drying up. Moses does something wrong and he's told he won't make it into the Promised Land. 
Nikayla walks us through some Rabbinical readings of the rock situation and the connection between Miriam and the water. Paul seems to know these Jewish traditions because he also thinks the rock followed the people around. 
 
Do you think that God abandons you or distances Godself from you when you're not actively seeking God? 
 
What would change for you if you knew that God was there regardless of anything you could ever do or say? 
 
Do you believe God is with you? Do we* believe God is with us*?  
 

Legends from the Long Road Part 8

In this sermon Dallas unpacks the story of Balaam and the Donkey who can talk. It's a funny and profound story of God blessing God's people without them even knowing it - it's about God's desire to gather His people under Her wing as a mother bird and how often we miss out on the Divine Longing to connect and belong. 
 
Do you think you "deserve" divine blessing? Why or why not?
 
How does it feel to imagine God wanting to bless and show compassion regardless of whether you deserve it or not? 

Legends from the Long Road Part 7

In this podcast Pastor Nikayla talks about Numbers 21 and the Bronze Serpent staff. Poisonous snakes come and begin biting and essentially killing the Israelite people. They all come together and ask for Moses to pray for them. God asks Moses to lift up a staff with a bronze serpent on it and when the community looks upon the serpent, they are healed.
 
This is a strange story! They have to look, together, upon the very thing that they're afraid of.
 
Fear can scatter us, or fear can gather us. What if we faced our fears together and trusted God to join us and unify us and heal us together? 
 
Love casts out fear. 
 
How can you face your fears this week at Awaken? Who do you need to invite for a coffee or a walk? 
 

Legends of the Long Road Part 5

The Wilderness is as far away from the Garden of Eden one could get. It's natural to long for that better place -- greener pastures -- for life to begin after this current place. In this sermon Pastor Nikayla explores the story of Aaron's staff and the possibility of Eden in our very midst. 
 
Are you waiting for your life to begin? 
 
Do you often long for something better? 
 
Have you ever seen LIFE in your midst when you anticipate death? 
 
Share a story of Good News from this past week

Legends from the Long Road Part 4

If this is your first Awaken podcast - you may be in for a shock! This sermon is part of a 10 week series on being in a wilderness space - spiritually and socially. In the wilderness you are forced to confront your deepest fears of scarcity, abandonment,  rejection, and death. It's a place for truth-telling. It's in this place that Jacob wrestles with God, Job cries out for justice, and Jesus cries out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" 
 
No one chooses the wilderness - no one has control over how long the wilderness lasts. St John calls it the Long Night of the Soul. 
 
Have you ever been in this wilderness place?
Have you ever been angry at or hurt by God?
In your tradition, are you allowed to be angry or hurt by God?
What would it feel like to fight God?