Cascade Church Portland

Word Made Flesh:: John 21

When I played basketball my freshman year of high school our coach gave us some great advice about taking free throws.  He had us all develop a free throw shooting routine that we would do before taking the shot. You could take a couple of dribbles, pat the ball twice before shooting. You could rotate the ball backwards and bounce it back to yourself before taking a shot.  Mine was five little dribbles, one spin on the palm of my hand and then take the shot.  The thinking behind it was sound.  When you play high school basketball every hoop is 10 feet tall and you're shooting from 15 feet away. The differences in gyms you play in, however, are completely unique. Some have huge banners hanging behind the hoop, some have bleachers, some have no room at all.  The point of the routine is to trigger your muscle memory so that you can block out the differences and focus on the similarities. Even today, if you had me shoot a free throw I'd probably start the little routine out of habit.  There's something so helpful and calming about routines that remind us that things are the same even when they feel very different. At there best these kinds of tricks bring us back to the present moment and remind us that so much is the same even when it feels all different. The presence of God is with us even when it seems like everything else is turned on its head. At their worst, our routines try to recapture something that doesn't exist anymore. We exit the present moment and retreat into the comfort of old patterns that allow us to avoid the world around us. God takes a back seat and our memories take the front seat.  This week we'll be looking at Peter going back to fishing after the death and resurrection of Jesus. What's present in Peter's return to the profession he knew after everything should have changed for him.

Easter Sunday 2018

The tomb is empty. 

It's one of the briefest and most confusing statements of joy ever spoken. They went to mourn and their confusion went from the smallest spark of hope into a roaring fire of joy. With Christ our visits to the places of deepest mourning bring us encounters with new life. Like Spring, it keeps bursting forth from the dead to remind us that God is still working. 

We are invited not just to observe the resurrection, but participate. What else is yearning for new life? What other tombs need to be discovered as empty? What hope needs renewal? 

As a child Easter was saying "thank you" for a gift I didn't ask for. It wasn't that I wasn't grateful, it was just that I didn't understand. God made me, but I was born steeped in sin and that meant an eternity spent in Hell. Fortunately God thought that was a bad idea, so he sent his son to die and now I don't have to go to Hell. 

It felt like a massive drama where my mortal soul was at stake, but I was ultimately an observer. My role was to find the tomb empty and celebrate the life of Jesus or spend all the days after my death being tortured by the Devil. 

What if the empty tomb is an invitation to partner in the act of resurrection? What if it isn't as much about observation as it is about participation? What else is God inviting us to see brought back to life? What part of our relationships, dreams and even our very selves are being called to partner with Jesus in coming back to life? 

The Church in America:: An Evening with David Congdon

This is a conversation that occured with a small group of Cascade folks and David Congdon, an author and theologian, about the church in America. What is Evangelicalism and how did it come to be? 

Word Made Flesh::John 12

 would have thought it was wasteful. 

I would have whispered that she was out of control. 

I would have had to look away. 

I would have asked how she got in the room and when we could get back to what we had been doing. ]

I would have shamed her. 

Mary pouring out a bottle of perfume on the feet of Jesus that cost the equivalent of one year's salary would have done me in. I wouldn't have handled it gracefully, I would have been on the wrong side of the issue back when it happened and maybe even today. 

I don't usually do well with extravagance and that kind of deep appreciation. Write a kind note or grab a Starbucks card. You don't have to go overboard. 

But what can we learn about celebration from this story that we might have become separated from? What can we learn about showing God and others how much we care and appreciate even when it looks over-the-top? How can we start loving with greater levels of abandon? 

Word Made Flesh:: John 11

I enjoy deadheading roses. 

There's not a lot of thinking that is required and when you have a lot of roses it's a task that can keep you going for hours. If you're not familiar with what deadheading, it's when you turn on some Grateful Dead and eat some Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia while sitting in your rose garden. 

Well, it could be!!

It's actually where you cut the flower that has already bloomed and fallen away from the bush. It's an essential process in roses if you want there to be additional blooms. If you don't deadhead roses you'll get rose hips, which is great for making tea, but it won't help you get any more blooms. 

The rose hips contain seeds to create more rose bushes. These little pods take an incredible amount of energy from the rose bush and they actively block any more flowers from blooming. A part of the rose bush has to die and be removed so that the energy from the plant can be utilized into creating more flowers. 

This week we're going to be looking at death and resurrection. In a fascinating and shocking story from the Bible, a man named Lazarus who has been dead so long he's starting to stink from decomposition is called back to life. This pattern of death and resurrection is a major clue to where the story of Jesus is heading. 

Word Made Flesh:: John 8

The story from John that we're looking at this week ends with the statement, "go now and leave your life of sin". 

Based on our different church upbringing and backgrounds, this question can be either incredibly freeing or triggering. The story of the women caught in adultery is a BEAUTIFUL description of a women being reinstated back into her community. However, the statement still remains "go now, and leave your life of sin".  Are you like me that wants to skip this part of the story and scan Instagram instead, or are you pumped by the honesty and straightforwardness of the question? 

Word Made Flesh:: John 9

Listen to Leroy Barber talk about the man born blind, the disruptive healing of Jesus and the people who think they are in charge of the movement of God. 

Hillary McBride:: Becoming Fully Alive

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

- Galatians 5:16,17

 

It's not for no reason that Christians have struggled with the ways they view and interact with their bodies. Galatians 5 may be the most extensive and well known treatise about the dangers of the flesh and the virtues of the Spirit, but it's not the only one. 

There is deep truth in recognizing that there are ways of viewing and engaging with our bodies that are deeply problematic, but creating a sharp separation between the body and God's Spirit can be damaging. 

How do we understand our own bodies and experiences in light of Jesus Christ and bring them fully into our practices of worship and spirituality? What if we understand the Galatians and other biblical texts not as a condemnation of our physical selves, but a mindset of flesh versus a mindset of God's Spirit? 

I'm excited that we have Hillary McBride sharing with us on this topic and more!

Word Made Flesh:: John 5

Do you want to get well?  The story from John that we're looking at this Sunday is centered around this primary question.  Does it seem like a ridiculous question to you?  If you have to ask this question than you can assume the person being asked the question has something in their life worth being made well from. There must be something wrong to be asked this question. So, who wouldn't want to be made well when something is obviously wrong?  The most dangerous illness is the one we refuse to acknowledge. One of my professors once told me that people won't change unless the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. Put in another way, we live with all kinds of dysfunction and pain in our lives and we don't face our dysfunction until its presence in our lives becomes unbearable.  Unfortunately most of us are living proof that we can hobble along with so much pain, dysfunction and illness. The cost of acknowledging the pain is usually greater than pain itself. We make it work. We find solutions to carry our dysfunction along in the journey before we ever consider facing it.  Can you live with dysfunction, pain and illness in your life? Of course you can. We all do in so many ways.  So the question, "Do you want to get well?", isn't about living. It's about living with freedom. It's about living in the wholeness we were created for. It's about moving through life lighter because we've stopped carrying our pain, illness and dysfunction along for the journey. It's a deeply powerful question that's obvious answer causes us to look deeply into our own hearts and motives.  Do you want to get well?

Word Made Flesh:: John 4

Today I have 4 different meetings with people. Met someone at a coffee shop. Met someone over lunch. Had a phone meeting and a meeting in someone's office. They've been in my calendar for a week now, so I've known they were coming. I was looking forward to each of them because I really, really enjoy meeting with people. I love hearing about how people are doing and the things they are passionate about. I learn something new or create a new connection of ideas that I've never connected before every time I meet with someone. 

I didn't walk into any of these meetings with the thought they could change my life. 

They were going to be good. They were going to be fun. They weren't going to take the course of my life in a new direction. 

Have you ever had a meeting that did that for you? The direction and expectations that you had for your life changed radically from before the meeting to after the meeting? 

Usually you don't know those meetings are coming. They catch you by surprise. You think you are going to talk about one thing and something totally different happens.

Maybe you get told that your position has been eliminated in the company. 
Maybe you are offered a new job in a new state. 
Maybe you are told that your parents love you and each other vey much, but they're getting a divorce. 
Maybe you are told that the test results are positive. 

When the trajectory of our story changes course it feels like everything is upside down. Positive and negative news both cause a disruption that make us re-evaluate our lives. We find out a lot about the foundation of our peace, hope and trust when our circumstances change radically. 

In this message we're looking at a very good and very disruptive meeting that Jesus had with someone that very few people thought he should be meeting with.  The fact that we know the story today hints at the impact of this meeting that started with two people and has sent our a ripple effect to hundreds of millions of people ever since.