Awaken Bowness Podcast

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.

Debt Forgiveness and Wealth Re-distribution

Jubilee is the antithesis to Capitalism. Jubilee is only possible in a gift economy. Jubilee is only possible among a people who have repented of their idolatry, who have denounced their allegiance to Mammon, and turned towards one another, viewing image bearers as being worth more than our possessions. Jubilee is only possible in a community that sees a God who made the world, loved the world, and on the seventh day delighted in the world, a creator among beloved creatures. Jubilee is only possible in a community that sees the labourer as an image bearer. Jubilee affirms the value of each human being regardless of their ability or efficiency, or productivity.
Mammon says that your value to society is dependent on your ability to serve the economy. In Mammon’s economy, disabled, queer, immigrant people are treated as burdens on society, and the able-bodied citizen is the most valuable. The able bodied father who works 50 hours a week at a job he hates, that is destroying his own body and destroying the world is a hero and his wife who is at home ensuring he is free to serve Mammon and not be distracted by things like laundry, meal planning and diapers is a virtuous wife. The son inherits the business. Sabbath stops mattering then because we can’t actually rest – we can only check out because we are bored or comfortably numb or we find work so degrading and meaningless to ourselves and to others that we can’t wait to be done with it. Sabbath rest isn’t possible in Mammon’s world or Pharoah’s world or Ceasar’s world or Jeff Bezos' world. Sabbath rest comes from a place of delight, of loving what God loves. Mammon creates death-dealing gender roles and hierarchies and everything comes down to how hard you can work, how much capital you can generate, and how successfully you can protect and defend your assets and the assets of your employer and your nation. Countless men have died fighting Mammon’s wars. Countless women have gone numb under the tyranny of Mammon’s womanhood. Everybody else is othered and then either murdered or swept under the rug.  But Jubilee – Jubilee spins the wheel the other direction and releases us from Mammon’s grip – brings us towards one another.
 
St Ambrose of Milan once criticized Christians for their charity work saying, “You are not making a gift of your possessions to the poor, you are handing over to him what is his.” (340-397).

Sabbath: Addiction and Recovery

As we continue our journey of exploration through God's dream of rest for the community of God, we are joined this Sunday by Wayne and Lydia Nelson, who will speak on Sabbath as Addiction Recovery. What does it mean to find rest and freedom from the bondage and burden of living with addiction. What is God's dream for us when we struggle with addiction, and what does Sabbath mean in this context?

Trauma-Informed Sabbath

God's sacred dream for rest and wholeness in our world does not mean rest from labour only, but rest from trauma, from indignity, and from the cycles of fear and ostracization that keep people from flourishing in the community of God. Christ offers a Sabbath rest that wraps us up in safety, empowerment, and connection. 
 
The week pastor James Wheeler joins us to preach on the Trauma-Informed Sabbath.

Sabbath and Jubilee

Every seventh year the community of God is meant to set aside an entire year for the work of entering into Sabbath rest, together. Every 50th year was called the Jubilee Year and was meant to radically reconfigure the neighbourhood according to God’s dream. Jubilee safeguards against intergenerational poverty and intergenerational wealth so that we can choose love, experience peace, and delight in God, together. At the onset of his ministry, Jesus proclaimed the inauguration of the final Jubilee and began forming a community that would join him in the ongoing work of Sabbath in the neighbourhood.  

He is not Here, He is Risen

He's not here? Where is he?!?
 
He’s out there. He’s gone ahead. He’s in the garden of the future. He is binding the strong man and getting ready to plunder the house. He is melting weapons down this very moment; He has the big mask on and there are sparks flying and he’s melting down steel and shaping them into gardening tools.
 
He’s washing shame from the face of every child and the tears from the eyes of all parents who’ve prayed through clenched teeth for their babies and he’s digging wells and planting the bulbs of purple irises – he’s breaking prisoners out of jail – expunging records – he’s at the bank, he found the record of your debt and he’s setting them to flame right now.
 
He’s got a jar full of every tear you’ve ever shed and he’s gone forward 10 generations and he’s planting those tears on the pillows of your anxious great great great great grandson – to whisper in his dreams that he’s the dream of his ancestors. He’s setting the table of tomorrow with the harvest he gathered from gardens that haven’t been planted yet. He’s singing – he’s marching – he’s dancing barefoot – he’s preparing little bowls of milk and grain and sweet wine. He knows the Kingdom of Heaven is a furred creature that lives inside of your chest and every morning he’s putting out those small offerings – he’s going to lure you outside of yourself. He's clearing away the debris and making it safe so you can come out into the streets and dance with your friends. He’s putting new wine in new wine skins. He’s singing, “let’s eat, drink, and be merry, for yesterday we were dead”.
 
He’s gone back to visit your grandmother’s mother and your mother’s mother’s mother’s father’s father’s parent’s parent’s all the way back to when we were sitting around the fire and looking at the stars and wondering about the future and he’s telling them about us and they’re cheering and they’re dancing – he’s gone back to tell them we made it and he’s gone forward a hundred years and he’s telling them that we’re on our way – that we’re doing the work – we’re noticing our wounds and the hope that comes from there - and we’re talking about what hurts and exploring the very convincing evidence that the parts of us that are hurting are the same parts that call forth change. We are at the library of life together like Hermione and her boys and we’re figuring out that hope is an action – faith is an action – humility is an act of resistance and asking for help is the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.
 
The future is coming like a dog at the offleash park -- it's bounding over the horizon, tail wagging, mud-covered, catching up but running past us, ahead, and turning back with an ear cocked to the side, "you coming?"
 
Our only mantra now is, "who knows? Everything is possible."