Awaken Bowness Podcast

Lent as a Sacred Space for Sorrow: A Wounded Healer

In which I argue, alongside Bo Sanders and Randy Woodley (De-Colonizing Evangelicalism) that we can do away with words like SIN and SALVATION and instead propose a more costly discipleship. What if we went deeper and talked about the wound beneath the 'sinful behavior' and rather than modify and control the behavior, we made a safe and sacred space for people to come clean about the pain and trusted that the naming or the confessing of the pain in community leads to healing. This healing is the salvation.  It's Christ our healer - Christ our wounded healer -- Christ invited us to put our hand in the wound and believe. 
 
 

Incarnation: Embodying Sacrificial Love

Eat the Skittles. Pay Attention to the Potlatch Ceremony and learn from the Traditional Stewards of this land. Participate in the Drama of Abundance and once you've seen that there is *enough* and the Love and Forgiveness, Mercy, and Welcoming Arms of the Creator never ever ever ever ever runs out -- your notions of scarcity will be exposed and you can join the flow of generosity that so gently seeks to re-order our anxious system. 
 
Have you ever been on the receiving end of generosity? Have you ever been able to give generously? Consider these experiences and reflect on the nature of our Generous God. 

Incarnation: Practicing Lament

On this Sunday we were gifted with the voice of Rohadi. Rohadi is an author, speaker, activist, and church planter. He led us in a thoughtful teaching on the importance of Lament and why some churches *cough* white evangelical churches *cough* are often not very good at this part of being alive in Christ. Thank you Rohadi!
 
James 4:8-10  Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
 
To learn more about the important work he is doing or access his free ebook on dismantling anti-black racism in the Church in Canada see his website at Rohadi.com 

Incarnation: Sharing Good News

The Gospel according to capitalism is not the Gospel according to Jesus. The Gospel according to Pharaoh, Caesar, White Evangelicalism .... it's just not Good News.
 
If someone breaks into my car and steals my spare change -- there's a good news where I live that says I can call the police and the police will come and make that bad coin thief go away. But the Good News according to Jesus must be Good News for the coin thief too, right? 
 
I'm interested in sharing that good news - every day - every breath. Good News for the sinner and the sinned against. 
 
 

Incarnation: Making Promises and Keeping Them

We are quick to throw away the things that don't work anymore, wear out, or just simply aren't fashionable anymore. This is true of the clothing we wear, the food we allow to rot in the produce drawer, and the relationships we have with one another. When something wears out or  breaks or doesn't interest us anymore  - we toss it. This is especially true when something doesn't cost us much: most people treat a 'rental' differently than a home they own. We care for what costs us - we dispose quickly of what costs little.  This mentality is destroying the earth, vulnerable communities, and pushing humans further into isolation and shame and crippling despair. Imagine a community that made promises, and then kept them! Imagine putting down roots, making a home, and saying, "I will fix this and repair it and make it last."  The God of our ancestral faith is a Covenanting God - a God who demonstrates "homefulness" - God takes what's broken or worn out and fixes it. We call this forgiveness. Our God is a forgiving God - a Covenanting God - a God who takes brokenness and makes all things new. 

Incarnation: Believing that Where We Live Matters

There's a lot of bad news going around - a system that thrives on anxiety and a fear of scarcity has captured our imagination and it seems impossible to imagine anything that would rescue us from ourselves. Then comes the God of the Incarnation - the God who moved into the neighbourhood (John 1:14 MSG) and invited us to participate in the only true resistance against Pharaoh's Kingdom: Neighbourliness. 
 
 

Incarnation: Interview with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (unedited)

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove took some time to chat with Nikayla about the gospel in his context of community living in a historically black neighbourhood in North Carolina. It was a beautiful and engaging challenge for all of us to live out biblical visions for justice with a gentle posture of love. 
 
Please check out more work he's been doing at jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com

Incarnation: Living Together

Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun wrote a book called, "For the Life of the World" and Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove wrote a book called, "Awakening Hope" and these two books plus the legacy of the House of Commons and other vibrant expressions of community at Awaken have inspired this sermon about the Earth and every living thing as the Home of God and finding a Home here with God and one another.

Incarnation: Breaking Bread Together

 Advent is over and not because the presents are opened and the tree has been put away, but because Christ has come! So, how do we Awaken to the hope, peace, joy, and love we were embracing during Advent? In this Christmastide season, let's take a practical look at how the Incarnate God invites us into the incarnation. God becomes flesh here in Bowness -- Awaken Awakens. So what do we do? 
 
1. We Break Bread Together
2. We Live Together
3. We Believe that Where We Live Matters
4. We Make Promises (and we keep them!)
5. We Share Good News
6. We Practice Lament
7. We Embody Sacrificial Love

Advent Week 4: Impossible Love

This is a sermon about the impossible love between Ruth and Naomi and how this small story of radical, boarder-crossing, and risky love proclaims the gospel as it points to the birth of God, a board-crossing and risk-taking God who comes in the name of Love, bringing all of Heaven with him. 
 
Thank you Nicole and Kate for singing O Come O Come Immanuel as a benediction