Awaken Bowness Podcast

The Holy Spirit Disrupts Systems

"I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord."
 
The coming of the Holy Spirit into our world does more than just give us dreams and visions, filling us with the internal sense of connection to God. It does more than connect us to the Land and Sky that surrounds us. It turns all of creation on its head. When the Spirit comes the greatest powers and systems we know, even the Sun and the Moon are turned upside down.

The Holy Spirit Speaks through Land and Sky

"I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs in the earth below."
 
The bible has told us again and again that God speaks to us through the Land, the Sky, and all things contained in it. In this sermon we imagine what it would look like to be a people who listen to the land in which we are planted, and marvel at the skies above it. The Spirit of God is speaking to those who get close enough to the dirt to hear her voice.

The Holy Spirit Speaks from the Margins

"Even your slaves will prophesy."
 
This week we explore how the Spirit of God speaks to us through those in our society who are the most marginalized, and that that place on the margins, rather than the center is where we meet God. The movement of God and the good news of our gospel Is that God does not lift us up or bring us to the center, but that first the incarnate God, and now the spirit of God goes all the way down to the humblest and lowly of people.
 
From the story of the Exodus, we learn that our God is a God of the enslaved people, those who are beaten down. We are reminded in this sermon one of the key messages of the biblical story, that the voice of God isn't heard from glittering halls of power but from the marginal places where we have decided things are of little value.

The Holy Spirit Thins the Veil

"Your young men will dream dreams and your old men will see visions." 
 
We continue our journey through Acts 2 and our exploration of who the person of the Holy Spirit really is with a sermon on the visions and dreams that the Spirit pours out on all people young and old. This week Sue Hewitt will walk us through how we experience the Spirit of God through visions and dreams.

The Holy Spirit Calls from the Future

"In those last days I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your children shall prophesy."
 
This week as we continue our mediation on Acts 2 and the Holy Spirit Kathy Brown talks us through this assertion from Joel that our children will prophesy. We contemplate in this sermon what is means to be a prophet, what prophesy really means, and how this gift of the spirit connects us to one another through time and through space, as our children speak prophetic truths which connect the past to the future. 

The Holy Spirit Pours Out

"I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." Is the opening to the key text we are meditating on over the course of this Summer. The Holy Spirit is characterized by this image of a radical generosity that pours out onto all people. This is a self-giving generosity that is given indiscriminately and unconditionally, a pouring out of self onto all flesh.
 
This Sunday Mike Poettcker brings us into the next phase of our series on the Holy Spirit by challenging out notion of what it means for the Spirit to pour out upon All Flesh, and what this example of a radical, self-giving, unconditional, indiscriminate generosity means for us as followers of God. 

The Holy Spirit Rushes In

We aren't really known for a fiery zeal for the Holy Spirit here at Awaken and with all the bad press our fellow Christians have given the Holy Spirit we can't blame each other for being guarded. Christians tend to cause more harm than good when we think of the Spirit as either a personal magic within us, validating our ego-driven desire to transcend, or as a liturgical lapdog who comes when called and turns the Spirit-filled life into a spectacle.
All through this summer we will be lingering in the mystery of Pentecost and the role of the Holy Spirit, and this exploration is opened by Dr. Beth Stovell, who will be opening our discussion by teaching us that the Holy Spirit rushes in to continue the work of Jesus, healing hurts and transforming communities. This kind of Spirit-breathed transformation is found in liberation that undoes imperial powers and societal violence, creativity that stirs up the arts to show us what it is to have God in our midst, calling us to advocacy against injustice, and speaking into our inner and outer hurts in an outpouring of love, peace, and hope. The Spirit offers us ways to become a part of the healing of the hurt in the world around us without us glorifying ourselves or becoming saviours ourselves. 
For the next several weeks, let's gather together and peer over the edge of ourselves toward our shared longing to be unraveled and enchanted anew. And what if we weren't focussed on a pursuit of a personal and disembodied Spirituality but on a collective surrender and curiosity for the Living Mystery that disrupts, unsettles, and enlivens us to inhabit this wonder-filled place?

Pentecost and Being a Jubilee People

Throughout this series we've explored how Sabbath is for all of creation - human creatures, non-human creatures, and the land itself. We either all rest and flourish, or none of us do. As we close the series on Pentecost Sunday, Dallas discusses how the pouring out of the Spirit on all flesh is an invitation, as Willie Jennings calls it, into the "risk of new relationships." This Spirit is not exclusive, and she is leading the Church towards radical inclusivity and belonging. Pentecost joins people together across all boundaries, and draws us together in a shared common good.

Sabbath for the Animals we call Livestock

The Sabbath laws in scripture are insistent that a true Sabbath rest is not just for the head of the household, not just for the wealthy who can afford it, but for everyone, and everything. If the rest isn't for everyone, it isn't Sabbath. The Scriptures also constantly remind us that God is deeply concerned with they way we treat animals. No small part of the law is dedicated to what animals can be eaten, and how they can be eaten, as our God is not the God only of humans, but of all living things.
 
So as we continue to discover in this series how Sabbath and Jubilee express God's dream for our neighbourhood and the flourishing of the world in which we live we discover this week what God's instruction to us to care for the animals - and the animals themselves - can teach us about the vision we are building for the flourishing of all creation.

Sabbath for the Soil that Sustains Life

We've considered so far in this series that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath made for man. This week, Michelle Edworthy impresses upon us that the Sabbath wasn't made only for human beings, but for the land itself. The Sabbath is a sacred symbol of rest, and that rest is commanded not just for the people who live on the land, but for the land itself. 
 
This week we are reminded that God's Jubilee dream is one of rest, wholeness, and thriving for the land itself. The land is holy, the land has agency, and the land is worthy in the eyes of God of this sacred rest. We imagine together what this can mean in our lives and our neighbourhood to honour God's commands that we give freedom and release to the land in which we live.