Awaken Bowness Podcast

Lent as a Sacred Space for Sorrow: The Cross and the Lynching Tree

We all have prejudice. Prejudice is when you make a judgement about someone's value based on their physical appearance/attributes. This could include their ethnicity, gender expression, weight, height, clothing style, monetary value of their clothing or vehicles, etc. Confronting our prejudices is important work and all people must do this work. Racism, however, is when power is mixed with prejudice and one group of people who have special access to power can dehumanize those they have prejudice against. Racism is about power and the Cross is God's divine confrontation with Power. This episode is a take 2 b/c of a sermon recording tech glitch. I read directly from my notes and re-recorded in my living room with a train and a puppy in the background. 
 
At Lent we talk about the agony of the crucifixion and the suffering of Christ and so this sermon felt like an important PART of a bigger story about the role of suffering in our world and in the Church and this sermon is not a systematic theology but rather a message from our pastor for a particular community asking particular questions in this particular place called Bowness. We focus on Isaiah 53 and the notion that Christ is a man familiar with pain and suffering and the ways his suffering leads to healing for all. 
 
Please don't just take MY word for it! Check out:
 
Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing and Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Soong Chun Rah and Mark Charles
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
Reading while Black by Esau Mccaully
The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone
Who Will be a Witness by Drew G.I. Hart
and African American Readings of Paul by Lisa M. Bowens
 
For a full bibliography of commentaries on books of the bible by Biblical Scholars and Theologians of color email us! 

Lent as a Sacred Space for Sorrow: The Sword That Breaks the Heart

Jess Andrews came and delivered this amazing sermon on pain and love through the eyes of Mother Mary. Thank you Jess for your leadership and courage. 

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.