Cascade Church Portland

Jesus:: Baptism

Are you familiar with the term "sacrilege"? It's the misuse or violation of something sacred, like the church or Christianity. It's a word that I grew up with and was fairly certain I was in danger of doing with most conversations about Jesus. 

There's an aura surrounding the story of Jesus. His miracles, teachings, death and resurrection all inspire a kind of reverence that demand us to tread lightly. I never felt comfortable asking many questions about the life and details of Jesus, because it could be sacrilege. I was never invited to think about what I would do if I were Jesus. It was always about placing yourself in the role of a disciple or pharisee or bystander. 

The life of Jesus existed behind glass to be preserved and revered. Thinking about how certain encounters impacted Jesus was a violation of our sacred savior. It could be sacrilege. 

In this series, "The Life and Journey of Jesus", we hope to remove the glass of preservation and engage fully in the story of Jesus. There will still be much of the story that seems very distant from our own experience, but to embrace the full balance of divinity and humanity found in Jesus is to embrace that he experienced the same emotions, doubts and temptations that we face. Ultimately this leads us into a relationship with the God who walked, talked, ate and breathed with us. Jesus didn't live a preserved and distant life, but an engaged life that invites us to be known fully by the God who knows us fully. 

A New Way Forward

Cara Meredith grew up in a white neighborhood, went to a white school and worshipped in a white church. This wasn't a positive or negative experience, it was just the reality of her situation. As she traveled off to school and started teaching she started having experiences with friends, students and people that had different backgrounds and experiences that started to open her eyes, heart and mind to a different story than she had grown up in. 

Years later Cara met the man who would ultimately become her husband. This man shared on one of their earliest dates that his father was civil rights icon James Meredith (the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962). This continued a journey and path for Cara to see how she was invited to engage in issues of race and racial reconciliation. 

Listen to a story of redemption and reconciliation and how the gospel of Jesus Christ invites us all to be minister of reconciliation. This involves learning stories of people who look different than you and come from different backgrounds so that we can be bridge builders instead of unknowingly being wall builders. 

Easter Sunday::Back to Life

It's impossible to overstate what Easter is and all that it represents. 

This week there were more terrorist attacks, and these were focused in Belgium. 31 people are dead and 330 more were injured. It's another tragic chapter in a world were unsuspecting civilians are attacked as they go about their daily lives. It actually follows a pattern of worldwide violence (much of which goes unreported or underreported in the US)that has struck in places like Burkina Faso, Jakarta and Ankara. 

What is so unique about Christianity is the kind of response we have to this kind of suffering. Christianity enters the grave and weeps with the world's mourners. The bitter sting of death is a central aspect of our shared story, as we will observe on Good Friday. We can face death with dignity and grace because our story is that death is overcome. 

On Easter Sunday we come together to see that the grave is empty and powerless. Jesus stands on the other side of death and violence with life and peace. We are invited to take part in the resurrection so that we render the hatred, violence and death in our world powerless to overcome God's good creation. Come stand in front of the grave to see that the stone is rolled away. 

 

Palm Sunday

One of the most transformational moments in my understanding of scripture came when I stopped reading the stories from a, "Get a load of these knuckleheads" perspective. It's really easy to read about Adam and Eve in the garden as the idiots who blew the perfect scenario for all of humanity. The Israelites can be seen as the complaining, short-term memory impaired, unfaithful hoard. The disciples can become the doofs hopelessly not understanding the simplest stories of Jesus. 

Here's what life has taught me. I'm Adam and Eve. I'm the Israelites. I'm the Disciples. 

This week's message is all about Palm Sunday, which is when a crowd at Jerusalem worshiped and welcomed Jesus into the city as a King and Messiah. The head-slapping moment in the story comes when this same crowd calls for Jesus to be crucified. 

Preparing for this week I've been struck with how appropriate that dramatic change feels for my own relationship with Christ. Moments after seeing him as my Lord and Savior, there are ways I'd like to remove Jesus from my life altogether. I'm the crowd. 

I invite you to listen to what we can learn from the people yelling "Hosanna" to Jesus and how we can keep that refrain in the moments we'd rather yell "Crucify". 

Abraham::And Isaac

This is one of the most terrifying and well known stories in the Bible. 

We've been walking a path for weeks now that looks at Abraham's cycle of doubt and faith. It's been a remarkable roller coaster ride that's lasted YEARS. When the object of his greatest doubts is finally realized in the birth of a son at very advanced age, God has an interesting idea. By interesting I really mean completely horrifying. God calls Abraham to take his son to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him. 

If this story doesn't deeply trouble you, then I would encourage you to let the reality of the request really sink in. God has ultimately delivered on his long ago promise to deliverAbraham a son who will ultimately lead to a great nation that God will bless. God then asks Abraham to personally ensure that his son is killed and offered up to Him as a sacrifice. 

That's brutal! Can this God really be trusted? Are all the promises of blessing and favor from God all an elaborate setup that will lead to a greater suffering and agony?

Abraham::Sin Again

When I was a kid I had this weird thing about eating lunches at school. I couldn't do it. The way my lunch sat in my bag it almost always got smashed, the cheese got soft and melty or one side of the sandwich got wet from something cold in the lunch bag. Those were all deal breakers for me and then the bad sandwich experiences got in my head and I couldn't trust a normal looking sandwich. 

This became a thing. 

Sandwiches were eventually ruled out so my Mom got more and more creative and I had a stretch of bringing bean dip and tortilla chips to school for lunch. That wasn't a real sustainable lunch choice so my Mom finally caved and brought in the big guns. 

We purchased Lunchables. 

This was a game changer and launched me into a whole new lunch experience. Lunchables were the caviar and champagne of school lunches and while I was consistently reminded that they cost too much for us, it was a decision borne out of desperation and fears that I would starve otherwise. 

Ultimately even this plan failed. I couldn't keep doing Lunchables everyday, but the idea of making my Mom's life more difficult by shooting down yet another idea was too to bear. So I did what any enterprising kid would do. I started hiding them under my bed. 
(If you're worried about decaying food in my room, apparently you aren't familiar with the shelf life of a Lunchable. They will outlive us all) 

I didn't want to be pretending to eat and hiding the old Lunchables, but I felt stuck in a hopeless situation. Every time I did it I felt guilty for this misuse of my family's money, but I just couldn't stop doing it. 

This did not end well. My Mom found my preteen hoarders collection and I was busted. I was forced to do what many  kids in Christian families do when they break their parent's trust. I wrote a paper on dishonesty using the Bible as my textbook. 

I share that story because it helps me see the ways that we devise our own impractical solutions to issues that we face. These solutions lead us down a limited path that doesn't show much foresight, and we feel stuck in a problem that started as the answer to our original problem. 

This Sunday we'll be looking at the story of Abraham and uncovering some insights into patterns of harmful behavior and the solutions that we sometimes talk ourselves into. I hope you'll join us and leave feeling ready to face your week without stuffing Lunchables under your bed ;)

Abraham::Counting Stars

There is usually a profound space between believing or being promised something great in the future and actually seeing it happen. While we can spend an awful lot of time talking about the moments when wait for great news of hope and the moments when we have received that hope, but what about the in between? This is a message about the the in between times. The moments we doubt that the good thing on the horizon will ever get close enough to touch. The moments when we are sure that God has forgotten about us and our preferred future has been lost. 

Partnering with Cascade

This week we share with you our journey from not existing one year ago to being a growing new church today. This message is absolutely an invitation to financially partner with Cascade. We are aware that money is not the end all and be all of church engagement and support, but it is an area that we want to invite you to journey with us. The reason being that we see a lot of potential in our little church and where we currently have grown to is the result of a small percentage of regular attenders contributing. That begs the question, where could we be if half of our regular attenders financially partnered with us regularly. 

Abraham:: The Lie

Early on in the story of Genesis Abraham is called and confirmed by God and faces a decision. 

How far do you trust in the voice and direction of God? 

Abraham knows that God is going to lead him. He knows God has promised to make him into a great nation. Abraham knows that he has God's incredible blessing, through which all the world will be blessed. Abraham has been promised a specific land to be the location of this promised nation. 

Abraham is forced with a hard decision when he enters into a challenging place after all of these confirmations. Should he work a cunning plan to protect himself or should he trust that God will protect him? If you've ever been faced with a difficult decision in your journey after God, this may ring true for you as well. When do we trust God and when do we take control of the situation to help God's plan along. We invite you to join us in this conversation. 

Abraham:: The Call

Most of life is facing some degree of the unknown.

We don't know how our boss or co-worker will respond to the hard conversation we need to have. 

We don't know if the big risk we feel in our gut will result in horrific failure. 

We don't know if our plan for the errands we have today will actually work out as planned or if one will have to drop. 

We don't know when and how we will die. 

It got real there at the end, didn't it? This message is all about the unknown. Come listen and join us in this conversation.