Shows
Awaken Bowness PodcastChoosing Against Hopelessness2025-05-0610 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDoubting Thomas : Help Me The Unbelief2025-05-0640 minAwaken Bowness PodcastPalm Sunday : How Long, O Lord?2025-04-3028 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow To Confront Each Other : the Ungrateful Servant2025-04-2323 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Disagree : Say It With Your Whole ChestA case study in Peter & Paul.
2025-04-2323 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Disagree : Say It With Your Whole Chest2025-03-274h 06Awaken Bowness PodcastFather of Light / Lord of Shadows - Megan Biggs2025-03-1723 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow We Treat Each Other : What Happens When We Disagree2025-03-141h 15Awaken Bowness PodcastHow We Treat Each Other : No More Meddling2025-03-0723 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow We Treat Each Other : Luke 62025-02-2528 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow We Treat Each Other : Romans 8:38-392025-02-1535 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow We Treat Each Other : Why It's HardDaniel discusses the proverbial elephant in the room : the abusers that can be a part of church spaces.
2025-02-0919 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow We Treat Each Other - Why It's Hard2025-02-0234 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow We Treat Each Other - Why It MattersAre we really known by our love for one another? Listen to Daniel preach on this and how we as the church could stand to redirect our focus.
2025-01-2135 minAwaken Bowness PodcastGod Is Mischievous - Megan BiggsLink to Dancing with the Stars video : https://youtu.be/QEu3PGP77-A?si=44CXEI7eiWbdZCMs
2025-01-0623 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Magnificat - Love2025-01-0432 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Magnificat - Joy2024-12-1927 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Magnificat - Peace2024-12-1940 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Magnificat - Hope2024-11-2934 minAwaken Bowness PodcastLee Goodman - God is Our Ally2024-11-2526 minAwaken Bowness PodcastJames Wheeler - God is Kind2024-11-1928 minAwaken Bowness PodcastAric Hartley - God is Creative2024-11-1109 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDerek Wilson - God is HolyIs holiness like a white shirt that doesn't have any stains on it, or is it something completely different? Derek gives us an alternative way to understanding holiness and this aspect of God's character.
2024-10-2828 minAwaken Bowness PodcastGlendon Frank - God is Tempted2024-10-1523 minAwaken Bowness PodcastKathy Brown - God is Wise2024-10-0733 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDaniel Taylor - God Is Good2024-10-0332 minAwaken Bowness PodcastEzekiel 17 - Derek Wilson2024-06-1830 minAwaken Bowness PodcastGod in our affliction - Sue Hewitt2024-06-1029 minAwaken Bowness PodcastBearing Witness - Francis ToussaintFrancis preaches on John 3:1-17.
2024-05-2729 minAwaken Bowness PodcastWe Need To Talk About BabylonAka the writing on the wall.
2024-05-2029 minAwaken Bowness PodcastIlluminated Dark/Illuminating Light: LoveIn our fourth Sunday of Advent, as we draw towards Christmas, Dallas Loewen teaches us about the illuminating light of love that we find in one another.
“The light that looks like love is bursting through the darkness that prevents us from seeing ourselves and others as the beloved creatures made in the image of the divine. The light reveals a chorus of voices singing and declaring and inviting all people to return to that same loving voice that's been there all along. Good news! The light has come! Your Liberator, the one whose light nev...2024-01-0827 minAwaken Bowness PodcastIlluminated Dark/Illuminating Light: PeaceThis week at Awaken, through our examination of celestial light, we are joined by Dr. Stephen Jeans, who teaches Earth and Space Science at Ambrose University and Mount Royal University. This week he walks us through the science of how the light shines in the darkness, the light of stars from millions of light years away, shining through the darkness of space. We consider what the actual skies teach us about the radical peace we can know as the light comes.
2023-12-0834 minAwaken Bowness PodcastIlluminated Dark/Illuminating Light: HopeThis Advent we will contemplate the way light interacts with darkness in personal, collective, and astronomical ways. When the nights are long and the days are filled with gloom; when the frozen air slows our bodies down, we join the ancient tradition of gathering around the light of community to honour each other’s longing to see what the light illuminates and to be released from what holds us, that we ourselves might radiate the illuminating light that shines in the night.
For this first week in Advent Kara Boda-Harvey leads us through biblical history, as we con...2023-12-0219 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to be Human: Shine Like the StarsThe final wrap up of our Daniel series, Glendon Frank leads us through the conclusion of the book of Daniel, and sets us up for the coming season of Advent.
“Is God the king on the throne whose days are numbered by the hand writing on the wall whose powers only one by the blood of the innocent? Or of God the child in a stable in an occupied land you know nothing about? Is God building a tower with bricks forged by the oppressed hoping in vain that it will make his name known forever? Or is...2023-11-3034 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: Do Not Fear BelovedDaniel Chapter 10 opens where we left off, with Daniel in a place of great lamentation and confession. But in this chapter, Daniel is not alone in his lament, but the Holy One comes to meet him and his grief on the banks of the Tigris.
'There's this God speaking: “You’re not wrong. Your tears are not wrong, your sorrow is not illegitimate, your anger is justified. Since the first day you set your mind to be human your words have been heard and I have come because of your words.”
'And in the las...2023-11-2129 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: Facing the TimesDaniel chapter 9 moves us out of the realm of the apocalyptic, and into the realm of confession. In the tradition of Jeremiah and the weeping prophets, Daniel recognizes with a deep grief that all is not okay. And this allows us to learn that we must first move through that grief at the way the world is, to hope and dream of how the world ought to be.
"We can grieve only when something like scales falls from our eyes, and we can begin to look around us, and we begin to allow ourselves to r...2023-11-1033 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: Unnatural/SupernaturalDaniel Chapter 7 takes a turn for the supernatural and apocalyptic. In this sermon we unpack what we can make of these dreams of beast and monsters, and what deep wisdom is held in apocalyptic story for our lives.
"The apocalyptic way of telling story allows us space to consider that perhaps the monster isn't the person or even the event. Perhaps the monster, the real monster that terrorizes us all is that feeling of being completely unsafe, of knowing that you are utterly alone. The feeling of knowing that you must go into hiding as a matter...2023-11-0940 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: You Shall Not PrayIn this sermon we arrive at the very famous story in the book of Daniel, where Daniel meets the Lion's Den. Once again we are met with the dynamic of humans, animals, de-humanization, and the question of who acts with true humanity.
"The way of the Living God is one where Lions can lay down with Lambs. Where I don't have to be afraid of you and you don't have to be afraid of me. It’s a reversal of what the Medes and the Persians believe. It’s a reversal of the anxious way of Empire. Anxi...2023-11-0331 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: The Writing on the WallIn the next chapter of Daniel, we open with a story of a new King on the Throne of Babylon, who is hosting a feast with the stolen treasures of the lands his empire has conquered. His feast is disrupted by the hand of God writing mysteries on the wall.
"So Jesus is standing here saying… I am not like Belshezzar, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Pharoah. I was born among the animals. I am a human one, no gold, no stony heart. If you become what you trust, Jesus says, I have become soft-hearted and compassionate. Jesus exists in...2023-11-0146 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: InhumaneIn Daniel Chapter 4, King Nebuchadnezzar has another dream he needs Daniel to interpret. Once again this dream raises questions for us, what is it to be a God, a human, and a beast.
“And so now we have this king, that was famous for his glory, and for his almost divinity. But he is going to be brought down. He’s going to be brought down so far that he will not become a human like the rest of us – we think – he will be brought down until he’s like an animal. Until the time that he learns...2023-10-2336 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: The DreamstateWe continue our series through Daniel the story in which the corrupt King dreams a dream about himself as statue made of precious metals, and so erects a real statue for the whole empire to worship. In this sermon we are led to imagine the differences between the kings of this world, and the kingship of the Son of Man.
“Daniel’s God is not like other kings, Daniel’s God is a Human One. Jesus’ favourite name for himself is the Son of Man, as if to say “I’m not made of gold and silver.2023-10-2139 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: Forced AssimilationIn chapter one of Daniel, we meet Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These four boys are are captured from their homeland and brought to the capital city of the Babylonian Empire, where they are to be given new, imperial names and moulded into boys with appropriate minds and bodies in the eyes of the empire. But they do not go alone into exile, their God travels ahead of them and with them into captivity, and they resist the oppressive imperial forces that strive to dictate to them the one true way to be human.
2023-10-0538 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHow to Be Human: One Like a Son of ManThe book of Daniel is a dramatic story of courts, contests, conflicts, and apocalyptic visions of violent kings, wild beasts, and the One True Human. The play between poetry and politics in Daniel forms an incredible tale about four friends resisting forced assimilation in Babylon. Although the Dehumanizing Empire tries to teach them how to be human, how to plan for the future, and how to find home, Daniel comes from a people who see reality differently and have a different way of knowing the time. This fall we will explore Daniel together in our context as a parish...2023-09-3030 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Holy Spirit Births a New HumanityOur Holy Spirit series has come to it's close. In this sermon, Nikayla brings home all the things we have learn and meditated on about the coming of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, and of the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives, as we imagine together the bright new vision of humanity that the Spirit is birthing in our midst.
2023-09-2831 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Holy Spirit Plunders the HouseThis week Sunday Dallas Loewen preaches on the next part of our passage from Joel and Acts, "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." We will be exploring the conception of the Holy Spirit, salvation, and deliverance from spiritual evil; exploring how these ideas can create harm in our communities, and what a Spirit breathed, life giving conception of the the Spirit's Deliverance can look like.
2023-08-2538 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Holy Spirit Brings Down the Mighty"The Sun will be turned to darkness and the Moon to blood before the great and glorious Day of the Lord, and all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved."
The Day of the Lord as an event is a towering figure that occurs over and over in the biblical narrative. What exactly is meant by the Day of the Lord? What does in mean to the people of God as an event that has already come to pass, and as an event that we wait and hope for? How does th...2023-08-1832 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe 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. W...2023-08-1634 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe 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.
2023-07-2928 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe 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.
...2023-07-2740 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe 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.
2023-07-2537 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe 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.
2023-07-2025 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe 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 Al...2023-06-3026 minAwaken Bowness PodcastThe Holy Spirit Rushes InWe 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...2023-06-2538 minAwaken Bowness PodcastPentecost and Being a Jubilee PeopleThroughout 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.
2023-06-1534 minAwaken Bowness PodcastSabbath for the Animals we call LivestockThe 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.
2023-05-3136 minAwaken Bowness PodcastSabbath for the Soil that Sustains LifeWe'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 la...2023-05-2034 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDebt Forgiveness and Wealth Re-distributionJubilee 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...2023-05-1740 minAwaken Bowness PodcastSabbath: Addiction and RecoveryAs 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?
2023-05-1632 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrauma-Informed SabbathGod'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.
2023-05-0531 minAwaken Bowness PodcastSabbath and JubileeEvery 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.
2023-05-0237 minAwaken Bowness PodcastHe 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 bul...2023-04-2827 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFalling in Love: Jesus in the PraetoriumWe know that the crucifixion was designed to publicly shame and brutalize political opponents but we also know the Romans understood political victory within a sexual framework. The Romans would use sexual metaphors to portray their military victories - they imagined themselves as dominating and emasculating their opponents and crucifixion was designed for this purpose. When we consider the context, we suddenly realize Jesus likely experienced sexual humiliation and sexual assault as a part of state terror and execution. When we realized God truly descended into hell, we realize we aren't alone in our hellish moments. Jesus endured the...2023-04-1238 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFalling in Love: Jesus and BarabasNostalgia makes us want to fight to go back to how things were and idealism makes us want to fight to rush ahead into how things should be. Privilege makes us want to just stay exactly as we are - status quo. Here we find ourselves having to choose between our religious authorities, our violent insurrectionists, and our comfort with how things are.
2023-04-1232 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFalling in Love: Jesus and PilateWho has the power? Pilate? Rome? Or the Crowd? This is a sermon and meditation about power, people pleasing, and silence as a gesture of resignation version courageous resistance.
2023-04-0750 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFalling in Love: Peter’s No and Jesus’ YesThis week the story moves from the garden to the house of the high priest in Mark 14:53-72. Jesus is carried there under arrest while Peter follows close behind. Over the course of the night both Jesus and Peter are asked three questions.
2023-03-1833 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFalling In Love: Betrayed with a KissThis week we focus on Mark 14:43-52, and the story of Jesus' arrest in the garden of Gethsemane. We meditate on what the love of Jesus looks like in the midst of betrayal, resistance, violence, and desertion.
2023-03-1035 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFalling in Love: Stay AwakeAs we enter into Lent we will not lose sight of the Love we’ve learned from our series on 1 Corinthians 13. Paul has invited the Church to rise in love – to be patient and kind and humble and hopeful. With this challenge in view, we will spend the 40 days of Lent moving slowly through the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life and watching Jesus fall in love. Is it possible to rise to the call of Love even if Love brings us down?
This series will carry us through Mark 14:32-15:31. We begin in the first week of this seri...2023-03-0430 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFrom Generation to Generation: We Can Choose a Better WayAt Awaken we enjoy focusing on Mary's "yes" to God but this Sunday we turn to focus on Joseph. If we only had Matthew's account of the birth narrative, we would never hear Mary speak. There would be no angels, no shepherds keeping watch, no census and no need for "room at the inn". The Joseph story in Matthew's telling involves four dreams and a brave father who must say yes. Joseph could have chosen to follow the scriptures and divorce Mary but instead, he offers a wild and costly yes to a better way - he marries the G...2022-12-2428 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFrom Generation to Generation: God Meets Us in Our Fear.Do not be afraid is the most common command in the bible, it is a phrase offered to God's people over and over again in times of distress and trouble. When the angel appears before Mary and she is troubled, confused, and afraid, this phrase is given again. In this sermon Kara talks us through how we experience the voice of fear, and what we can learn from Mary's response about how we can respond to the voice of fear.
The sermon series is based on the Advent Package created by A Sanctified Art LLC, a...2022-12-0918 minAwaken Bowness PodcastFrom Generation to Generation: There’s Room in Every StoryIn Mary's song she says, "His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation." We reflect, on this first Sunday of Advent, on the ways Mary is pregnant with both the past and the future. The genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke tell us that it's not about he bloodline of Jesus, but the story that shaped the people that shaped the story that shaped the people. So we are here, in this moment, between what came before and what come next. The light comes to us from the past and it comes fro the...2022-11-3034 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 14-16Welcome everyone and do it in love. Paul concludes his letter to the Romans with a scandalous call to radical welcoming. The ideology of Rome tells us we have to adapt to belong, but the Good News of Jesus says we are welcome in our differences. We may see things differently, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be in relationship. You are fully welcome, you are welcome fully, and you are fully welcome to be fully you. Safe and connected. And that script shapes our imagination for community - I welcome you with the welcome, I myself rece...2022-11-1532 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 13In Romans 13, Paul instructs the church in Rome to submit to the governing authorities which God has placed over them. This text has been used throughout Christian history to instruct Christian to support governing powers, including when those powers upheld injustice, oppression, and slavery. How are we to understand this text in light of Paul's mandate that the greatest authority, and the truest fulfilment of the law, is love?
2022-11-1140 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 12In this episode Glendon takes us though Romans chapter 12. After several chapters discussing ideas of sin, justice, salvation, the things that divide us and the things that unite us, Paul gives us some instruction on how we should now live. What does is mean to live by love, to allow your life, your body, to be given as a gift, a sacrifice?
For copyright reasons, a small section of the sermon is omitted in which a clip from the 1995 film Before Sunrise is played. If you would like to watch the clip you can find it...2022-11-0256 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 9-11Romans 9-11 has been used to argue for pre-destination and concepts of election. Some jars of clay are made for destruction and some for glory. Cannot the potter smash the clay if that's the potter's desire? This theology has been used to explain eternal conscious torment. If a 14 year old Muslim girl is raped to death and burns in eternally in hell, well that's God's prerogative. The Jews who died in the Holocaust? Eternal conscious torment. The kids who died in residential schools? Suffering eternal torment.
Eventually that way of thinking can mess a person u...2022-10-2837 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 7&8This Sunday Glendon explores Romans 7 and 8. These constantly quoted chapters explore both the reality of struggles and sufferings that we experience in the this life, and the declaration that there is, right now, no condemnation and perfect freedom in Christ. How can we hold the tension between the reality of the struggles that we face and the promise of freedom and peace from those struggles, while looking at this freedom through the lens of God's radical overturning of oppression and injustice?
Unfortunately, due to an issue with the Zoom audio recording, several minutes were too d...2022-10-2034 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 6This Sunday Dallas explores Romans 6 and looks at how English translations prefer to use 'righteousness' instead of 'justice' when the Greek work is the same for both. How would the church be different if our focus was on justice (systemic justice) rather than only personal righteousness?
How many young people were raised to believe the goal of Christian discipleship to not swear, not watch R-rated movies, and not masturbate, but never learned anything about the biblical vision of justice for all? The church is meant to foster and alternative economy, and alternative way of walking u...2022-10-1238 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 5Pastor James Wheeler leads us in a beautiful sermon on the power of loving our enemies.
None of us is able to change the abusive system we were born into that the Empire depends on – all of us need help. Sin is a web that we are all caught in and here's the good news:
You aren't more important than anyone here AND no one here is more important than you. While each of us were still sinners, “Christ
died for us” – you’re already worthy and welcome – you don’t have to do anything to...2022-10-0427 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 3-4Nothing kills community like nostalgia for the good 'ol days except maybe the 'dream' of how a community could be. Have you ever been a part of a church where the long-standing members feel nostalgia for what once was and the new members are eager and full of ideas for what we *could* be? That's the dynamic in the Romans Churches and Paul is not interested in forcing one side to assimilate to the other and nor is he interested in segregating into two different church. The Holy Spirit is always joining the two into the ONE. Perhaps we...2022-10-0438 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 1:18-32This is one of the 'clobber passages' that has commonly been weaponized against LGBTQ Christians. In this sermon, Nikayla considers the historical context and comes down hard against doing what's unnatural and degrading. This was vulnerable and packed with soul-food for anyone who has grown up hating their body and not knowing God's vision for flourishing sexuality.
2022-10-0443 minAwaken Bowness PodcastDear Empire: Romans 1:1-7Enjoy this sermon on the beginning of Romans 1. Here Pastor Nikayla opens up the book of Romans to set us off into a 10 week series.
No book of the Bible has played a more significant role in shaping Evangelical theology than the book of Romans. Penal Substitutionary theories of atonement and reformed theologies are largely shaped by texts in Romans.
Romans is the most written about, most taught, and most memorized book in the Bible. If you've ever attended a seminar on how to convert your friends to Christianity, you likely learned to us...2022-09-1544 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Lost Sheep with James WheelerEnjoy this sermon on Matthew 18:1-14 by the amazing James Wheeler.
Here he connects the lost sheep and a Good Shepherd to the warning against causing harm to a child. This text through trauma-informed lens opens the parable to new possibilities and brilliantly closes our Trickster Jesus series! Thank James.
2022-09-1537 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Parable of the BanquetBrynne Nelson leads us in this sermon about the Banquet - Brynne challenges us to consider who we've invited and who we haven't and how we respond to all the new guests. This felt like a very important sermon for Awaken and for any churches navigating what it looks like to be a fully inclusive and welcoming space.
Thanks Brynne!
2022-09-1518 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Good SamaritanAdam Ayer leads us in an amazing workshop about this parable - be warned, it's not a very podcasty-podcast. There was a lot of group discussion and dialogue but the microphone only picks up Adam's voice so we've edited it as best we can (thanks Anna!!) to make it all one message - it's quite interesting!
Good Samaritan questions:
After reading the parable slowly consider the details of the stor.y
Who is the man in the ditch? Do the others think he's dead? What happened to him? What would motivate t...2022-09-1536 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Widow and The Judge"despair is a luxury of the bourgeoisie" - overheard in a Palestinian refugee camp.
When you can't afford to give up, you don't. So *who* can't afford to give up?
Tamika Palmer
Debbie Baptiste
Tina Duck
There are widows in our communities who are standing relentlessly for justice. Let's stand with them.
2022-08-1445 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Pharisee and the Tax CollectorIn this amazing sermon, Dave King begins with the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee but then he shows us some other stories from Luke 18 and 19 to show how this parable is a key for unlocking all sorts of ways Jesus invites in those from the sides and sends away those who assume their place in the center. Wow! Thanks Dave!
Themes he covered include "mercy", "childlike faith", and who's sent away vs who is invited in.
2022-07-2832 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Pearl of Great PriceIn this story we unpack the way the text does not *actually* the kingdom is like the pearl - the kingdom is like the merchant who knows what he's looking for and can recognize it when he finds it. Do you know what you really desire and will you recognize it when you see it?
Nikayla gives a small sermon and then Chris L comes up with a personal illustration. This personal testimony was an incredible gift to Awaken and a historical moment in lives of all of us. Thank you Chris!
2022-07-2858 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTricksterJesus: Labourers in the VineyardHave you ever stopped to consider:
Why did certain labourers get chosen first and why did some get looked over until the very end of the day?
What kind of a businessman would give the same wages to all?
Sounds to me like everyone is invited to the joy of becoming like Jesus and it sure sounds like God isn't a capitalist. It sounds like there's an abundance of joy and belonging and if it isn't a competition, we can celebrate one another's joy. Thank you Jesus for being a trickster and...2022-07-1543 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Kingdom of Heaven is like YeastLacey Hilgen brings this beautiful message to all of us where she goes through scripture and teaches us about the three measures, the bountiful feast, and the Kingdom of heaven. Thanks Lacey!
2022-07-0623 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: The Pharisee and the Tax CollectorD'arcy Watsham takes us on a beautiful journey through how not to read this parable and how we might read it anew. Thanks for this challenging message to be open to the neighbourhood and open to one another.
2022-07-0625 minAwaken Bowness PodcastTrickster Jesus: A Parable Series on the God who is Gentle and ShrewdThis Sunday Pastor James Wheeler leads us in a brilliant and trauma-informed sermon on the parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15:4-32. What a gifted preacher and compassionate steward of the Word - thank you James!
Engaging the parables is an art that has largely been lost. The parables of Christ are designed to surprise, challenge, and shake us up because Jesus comes to us, gentle as a dove but shrewd as a serpent. Jesus isn’t just a teacher – he’s a trickster and a conspirator. Jesus speaks as both omniscient creator and innocent fool – an impassion...2022-06-2038 minAwaken Bowness PodcastElement: WaterWe have reflected on Body and Blood at Awaken this year, and now we are wrapping up these reflections at the Communion Table with a series called ELEMENTS where we will reflect on the four elements: earth, fire, water, air and how all of creation is gathered together at the table where we are nourished together on the body and blood of our Incarnate God. All of creation eagerly awaits the reconciliation of all things: element to elements.
Today, Malcolm Klager leads us in a sermon about the theme of water in the bible - i...2022-06-2012 minAwaken Bowness PodcastPentecost Sunday: The Wind and Fire of GodDallas Loewen gives this brilliant sermon on Pentecost Sunday where he brings together Willie Jennings and Robin Wall Kimmerer to invite us to be a people shaped by a vision of belonging achieved not by forcing others to be like us but by being a people that learn to speak the language of others. The church is a guest in the world and we are here to listen and learn. God has invited us "...inside the risk of following the Spirit - the risk is believing in new relationships" - Willie Jennings.
2022-06-1925 minAwaken Bowness PodcastElement: AirPlease forgive the technical glitch at the beginning of this sermon - we made the mistake of trying to be fancy which meant you can't hear the first five minutes so the intro might not make sense but trust us - it gets great!
We have reflected on Body and Blood at Awaken this year, and now we are wrapping up these reflections at the Communion Table with a series called ELEMENTS where we will reflect on the four elements: earth, fire, water, air and how all of creation is gathered together at the table wh...2022-06-191h 41Awaken Bowness PodcastElement: WaterWe have reflected on Body and Blood at Awaken this year, and now we are wrapping up these series at the Communion Table with a series called ELEMENTS where we will reflect on the four elements: earth, fire, water, air and how all of creation is gathered together at the table where we are nourished together on the body and blood of our Incarnate God. All of creation eagerly awaits the reconciliation of all things: element to elements. Malcolm Klager gives his first-ever sermon and here he leads us in this sermon on water and b...2022-06-1931 minAwaken Bowness PodcastElement: FireWe have reflected on Body and Blood at Awaken this year, and now we are wrapping up these series at the Communion Table with a series called ELEMENTS where we will reflect on the four elements: earth, fire, water, air and how all of creation is gathered together at the table where we are nourished together on the body and blood of our Incarnate God. All of creation eagerly awaits the reconciliation of all things: element to elements.
Pastor Nikayla leads us in a reflection on fire in the bible focussing on Elisha and the s...2022-06-1931 minAwaken Bowness PodcastElement: EarthWe have reflected on Body and Blood at Awaken this year, and now we are bringing these ideas together at the Communion Table with a series called ELEMENTS where we will reflect on the four elements: earth, fire, water, air and how all of creation is gathered together at the table where we are nourished together on the body and blood of our Incarnate God. All of creation eagerly awaits the reconciliation of all things: element to elements.
Kara Boda Harvey leads us in a sermon on the earth and how we should learn to l...2022-06-1913 minAwaken Bowness PodcastBlood: The Blood of JesusKara Boda Harvey takes us into a deep dive celebrating the blood of Jesus. This is another take on the atonement and why the blood Jesus is significant. Enjoy!
2022-04-1325 minAwaken Bowness PodcastBlood of AtonementHere Nikayla discusses a bit about the blood of atonement - we look at the sacrificial system in Leviticus and the day of atonement and reflect on what it means that Jesus satisfies the wrath of Jesus (or in other words, how God Godself satisfies the wrath of God).
What does it mean that God became the sacrifice on the altar to atone for the sins of the whole world, *while we were still sinners*?
2022-04-0648 minAwaken Bowness PodcastBlood: Blood of New LifeHere Kara Boda Harvey leads us in a beautiful and thoughtful reflection on the blood of new birth - menstrual blood and post-partum blood. These blood sources are a big deal in the Old Testament and Kara connects it beautifully to the blood of Christ and the birth of the church.
Questions for reflection:
Beginning again is sometimes painful - share a story about the pain of new beginnings
2022-04-0624 minAwaken Bowness PodcastBlood of LiberationThe Exodus story is the only story and the entire bible is just telling that same story over and over and over - pain turns to speech, the heart of a God turns towards the cry, water turns to blood, blood turns to wine.
2022-03-2444 min