Ten Years - Jeremy Duncan

★ Support this podcast ★

What is Commons Church Podcast?

Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.

Jeremy Duncan: 00:00

Resurrection is fundamentally different than resuscitation. It's not just a return to what was, it's not just beating hearts and expanded lungs. Resurrection is a transition into an intrinsically new way of being alive in the world. Well, this is pretty incredible everyone. After 10 years to finally have the entire commons community back under one roof at the same time for one worship service together.

Jeremy Duncan: 00:29

This is really incredible. By the way, this is off script, but 10 years ago there was a narrative that the idea of a progressive faithful church could not flourish particularly in a city like Calgary and let me tell you guys have blown that story out of the water today. So thank you for that. And honestly, every Sunday that you show up church feels special, the fact that you take part of your weekend to worship with us, we never take that for granted, but the fact that you are here today to celebrate this milestone in our story together, this is really a gift. So, I want you to know this from the bottom of my heart.

Jeremy Duncan: 01:06

You've made my decade and from the entire team at commons. Thank you for being part of this community. Now, I do want to teach today and I want to talk about Jesus and I've written a sermon that I'm excited to get to. Although, to be honest, I am a little bit nervous because it has been a very long time since I've only had one shot to get it right, and no plan b today. But before I get into all of that, considering we're here to celebrate 10 years of God's grace in our community, it only seems right to rehearse a little bit of that story.

Jeremy Duncan: 01:41

Because 10 years 9 months ago, a small group of us began to put an imagination out into the world, for an intellectually honest, spiritually passionate church with Jesus at the center of our theology. And those phrases, those words have continued to guide us now for a decade, and they were pretty carefully considered and chosen. We knew that there were a lot of people here in the city wrestling with their faith, even deconstructing some of the ideas that they had been handed, and yet struggling to find a community in which they could be honest about all of that. At the same time, we felt like we had to hold space for some passion in that rediscovery, that reinventing our faith would take more than just dry lectures and homework. There needed to be space to worship together, to serve together, to put our backs into the kind of communities and neighborhoods that we wanted to be a part of.

Jeremy Duncan: 02:38

That was going to be important too. But ultimately, I think we knew that Christianity was due for a Renaissance, a rediscovery maybe, but certainly a return to Jesus at the center. Not just of our iconography and our language, but of the way that we imagine the divine. A return to this conviction that we will never see God more clearly than when we look at the way of Jesus in the world. And so with that imagination in place and the vision ahead of us for what could be, we began to set out to tackle all of the practical aspects of actually making a church tangible.

Jeremy Duncan: 03:17

And that meant building teams and crafting budgets and pretty high on that priority list was finding a space to meet him. However, along the way, something pretty remarkable happened. Through some serendipitous conversations, I was put in touch with a little church on the corner of Kensington Road, and we started talking about a rental arrangement, but that conversation progressed quickly toward a partnership, because there was a real sense that this church had a similar imagination to us. And by the summer of 2014, the 21 members of Kensington Road Church had voted unanimously to join together with a handful of us to form Commons Church. Yeah.

Jeremy Duncan: 04:00

We spent the summer renovating everything we could in that building. We spent basically every cent of the budget that we had raised, investing in this space we could have only dreamed about months ago. We painted, and we drywalled, and we learned how to hang projectors from the ceiling. The secret is really big ladders. But slowly, it started to come together, and word started to leak out into the neighborhood, and in September 2014, we opened the doors for the first time and honestly could not believe what happened.

Jeremy Duncan: 04:31

That first Sunday was wild. We grabbed every chair we could find, we had people sitting on the floor in the lobby, we scrambled to find enough Eucher supplies to serve everyone. In fact, that Sunday, September 14, 2014, that was the last time that we were all together in one service on a Sunday because the next Sunday, we moved to 2 services just 7 days later. And it didn't stop there. A year after that, we moved to 3, a year after that, to 4.

Jeremy Duncan: 04:57

A couple of years after that, we launched a parish in Inglewood, and we saw God do incredible things in and through commons. We've seen baptisms. We've heard from people who've returned to their faith. We've talked to people who have begun to heal from religious trauma that they never thought they'd get over. Stories our dreams from 10 years ago could only whisper about.

Jeremy Duncan: 05:23

And that doesn't mean it was easy. We've pastored through loss. I've been there for your funerals, divorces. As a team, we've had the privilege of being in your life at moments where faith was very hard. In fact, I mentioned the launch of the Inglewood Parish, and we poured a lot of time and energy and heart and soul into that effort, and ultimately, we had to let it go.

Jeremy Duncan: 05:48

And that stung. But still, at every step along the way, I can honestly say that we have never lost sight of the why behind commons, the fact that we, as a team, we get to be part of your story. And all of that, all of this really is here because a small handful of people dreamed about what church could be like. And as of today, it's been 10 years of that shared story, and the grace of God we've been privileged to see through it all. So the question is, after a decade of commons, do you want to do it again?

Jeremy Duncan: 06:28

About a year ago, our board got together at the end of the season like we normally do, and started thinking about the coming year. We'd come out of the online only era, and we'd spent a few years recovering, really kind of rebuilding the commons that we knew. But there was a sense a year ago that it was time for us to look forward. And that's a scary thing sometimes, especially when you've tried something and you failed at that, and it's time to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and try again, but it felt that's what we were being called to, to go back to this core imagination of commons as a connected community of parishes across the core of the city. Well, that fall, I came into the office and in my inbox there was an email from someone I didn't recognize, But they were offering coffee, and so I took them up on it.

Jeremy Duncan: 07:15

And pretty quickly in that conversation, what I came to realize is that this was a community here in the city that was uniquely aligned with the approach and theology of commons, a community that was looking for new leadership and vision that they thought Commons could offer. And remarkably, they found themselves situated in a core neighborhood that felt very appropriate and alive to the commons vision. And so that conversation quickly turned into 2 and then more, and that spilled out into boards and membership votes. Lawyers and architects found their way into the conversation, and now we find ourselves on the verge of, not just our next 10 years, but their next great adventure as well. And so this week, the members of Marta Loop Church have become members of Commons Church.

Jeremy Duncan: 08:04

The Commons Church has assumed control of an incredible property right in the heart of Martell Luke. Even though the location is incredible, the building here needs a lot of work, and so there's going to be congregational meetings, and budgets, and Gantt charts galore, but this opportunity to get to try this again is incredible. If you had told me that 10 years ago, what we experienced in Kensington would be the highlight of my career, I would have said absolutely. But to get to do it all again in a second decade is just beautiful. And I think the only response now is to pour ourselves heart and soul into the formation of an intellectually honest, spiritually passionate church with Jesus at the center of Marta Loop.

Jeremy Duncan: 09:14

Now, I don't know if you understand how incredible this is. I have been a pastor for 20 years and in that time, I have scarcely even heard a story that matches the grace and the generosity of what kicked off the common story 10 years ago in Kensington. But now to get to experience all of that generosity and grace all over again, it almost feels like a little bit too much. And so as I said in the video, there's a lot of work ahead of us. The extent of the renovations in that facility are gonna take time, so this is not gonna be quick, And we will have more information about all of this for the community this fall, but truly, the only response to this kind of favor is to pour ourselves back into the vision that founded Commons Church a decade ago and to re up for another 10 years.

Jeremy Duncan: 10:03

I'm in. Are you with me? Alright. Well, let's pray. God of all grace, who is consistently more generous than we expect and even honestly even realize, for all the ways that you have blessed the common story, for all the ways you continue to call us to be faithful in new ways to your story, we are grateful and humbled.

Jeremy Duncan: 10:31

We are focused on the grace and peace of Jesus that each of us need in our lives every single day. May your gratitude flow into our generosity, And may your grace flow through us in kindness. May your peace translate into the ways that we speak and we interact and we relate with our neighbor each morning. Trusting that your way and your son's path through this world really is the template for our flourishing. In the moments where we lose sight of your nearness, would your spirit remind us even today, renew us even, breathe into us new life for whatever it is you have ahead of us.

Jeremy Duncan: 11:16

But most of all, might we always trust that you are ahead calling us forward, and that the best is yet to come. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Alright. 10 years.

Jeremy Duncan: 11:34

Where to start? Well, how about a story about my son? Right? When COVID started 10 years ago, my son was 1 year old, and I have told lots of stories about him over the years. So to start there feels appropriate, classic even.

Jeremy Duncan: 11:47

Thing is my son has recently now turned 11 and he is somewhat less enthusiastic about my stories these days. However, in the spirit of looking back, I've asked if I can tell an old one reaching back into the archives as it were. Because I was thinking this week about a game that we used to play around our house. See, my daughter who is 4 now is very fond of our doorbell, demands to ring it every time we come home. She thinks that's great.

Jeremy Duncan: 12:13

But my son, when he was just a little older than she is now, also used to be fascinated by our doorbell. At the time, we had just gotten one of those newfangled fancy video doorbells. We've all got them now, but it seemed like a big deal 5 years ago. And I remember he basically thought this was science fiction. You mean, you can tell me that you can stand at the door, ring the doorbell, and I can see you on the TV.

Jeremy Duncan: 12:35

Mind blown. So he would have a blast ringing it and answering it. He would ask me to go outside and ring the doorbell so he could see me on the TV. And if that doesn't sound like a lot of fun to you, you'd be right, but you'd also be surprised by what can entertain children sometimes. Anyway, every time we rang the doorbell, he would say, ding door, ding door, daddy somebody's at the ding door.

Jeremy Duncan: 12:57

And that was fun and kind of cute but not really in line with social convention. And so not wanting him to later be ostracized for his doorbell rigging idiosyncrasies as he grew, I would say to him, buddy, it's not ding door, it's ding dong. To which he said back to me, daddy, that doesn't make any sense. I'm at the door, not the dong. It should be ding door.

Jeremy Duncan: 13:21

And I have to admit, I still do. Maybe he has a point. Maybe social convention is the problem here after all. Thing is I do think we get conditioned to certain responses that might not actually take full advantage of the moment. I mean, you could be saying ding door every time the doorbell rings and you're not.

Jeremy Duncan: 13:40

Why? Well, I think it's because we tend to say the kinds of things we're supposed to say in the kinds of moments we're supposed to occupy. And I think because of that, sometimes we miss out on what's standing right in front of us. See, I think a moment like this, a 10th anniversary, a celebration of an extraordinary decade, the social convention is it's time to look backward, time to celebrate everything that has been, to express gratitude for everything that was. And don't get me wrong, all of that is good.

Jeremy Duncan: 14:16

We should do all of it, of course. But I wonder if the best expression of an anniversary could be as much about a door to what's next as it really is a celebration of what was. And maybe that has more importance than just today. You know Rachel and I, we're coming up on 24 years of marriage soon. I was thinking this week as I wrote this sermon, what if we reimagined our anniversary?

Jeremy Duncan: 14:43

Instead of going out for dinner and patting ourselves on the back for how we've made it another year, what if we spent an evening dreaming together about everything ahead of us in the coming year? It actually sounds like a good anniversary. We should do that, honey. Put it on the calendar. But grateful decades and wedding anniversaries aside, all of this strikes me as a uniquely Christian approach to ringing the bell.

Jeremy Duncan: 15:06

Because when the big moments happen, the biggest moments in fact, I think what we find is that our faith is always orienting us forward. See, there's this moment right at the start of the book of Acts. And if you remember in the gospels, Jesus goes around teaching people about God and that starts off well, but it ends rather poorly. He's executed by the state, deemed a threat to the status quo. Spoiler, he does come back.

Jeremy Duncan: 15:39

And the resurrection narrative is really the center of our faith. It's the divine stamp that tells us everything Jesus taught us is true. The way that he lived, the path that he walked, the choice of self giving non violence, none of that can be defeated, at least not permanently. Now the story can, like any good story, look bleak for a time and hope can fade and light can appear lost, but in the end, Easter tells us love wins. That's the gospel.

Jeremy Duncan: 16:13

But then what? Well, then there's the book of Acts. And Acts does this really interesting thing because the story picks up with the resurrected Jesus sitting and eating with his friends, telling them that they will be empowered by the same spirit that guided him back to life, explaining that they will take this new good news of conquering love to the ends of the earth. And then in verse 9, legitimately, one of my favorite moments anywhere in the Bible, this is what we read. After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Jeremy Duncan: 16:53

And they were standing, staring, looking intently at the sky as he was going when suddenly 2 men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they asked, why do you stand here staring at the sky? Now, look, these stories are stylized. Right? They're far more than just objective recountings of history.

Jeremy Duncan: 17:13

The writer is crafting a moment for us here. This moment is just like really well done because it's funny. Right? Jesus is crucified. He dies.

Jeremy Duncan: 17:26

Hope is lost. The sky turns dark, And for 3 days, the disciples cower in fear afraid to leave the house lest they be identified with this deceased Messiah. But then, he's back and the universe is changed. Death is overcome. Despair is washed over in the blinding light of resurrection.

Jeremy Duncan: 17:50

And now Jesus sits and eats and talks with his friends, spins yarns about wild adventures and missionary travels, and then he just floats off into the sky. And if you haven't given yourself permission to chuckle just a little bit yet, next 2 angels appear beside the disciples and they're like, what are you guys looking at? Absolutely. One of my favorite moments anywhere in the New Testament. And it's partly for the surreal humor of it, but even more than that, I think it's because this moment just feels theologically significant to me.

Jeremy Duncan: 18:27

Like, this is important. This moment matters. And it matters because I think the normal instinct, the social convention here is to imagine the story is over. Jesus has come back. Death is defeated.

Jeremy Duncan: 18:44

Let's kick up our feet, sit back, and enjoy the show. And the narrative that the offer writers writer offers to us is, guys, things are just getting started. It's almost like the gospel writer says, okay, let's catch our breath. I'll give you a beat. Let's get some lunch.

Jeremy Duncan: 19:03

But you know what? The next chapter starts now. And for me, that kind of feels like what faith should be. And my foundation in what has been and what I choose to believe about what was, all of that consistently motivates me to believe in what could be next. Resurrection is fundamentally different than resuscitation.

Jeremy Duncan: 19:35

It's not just a return to what was, it's not just beating hearts and expanded lungs. Resurrection is a transition into an intrinsically new way of being alive in the world. And I think it's almost like God knows that our instinct is to consistently wanna camp out in the big moments and stay there. Because as soon as the disciples ask, hey, Jesus, is now the time that you're going to restore everything that was to us? That's in verse 6.

Jeremy Duncan: 20:03

That's immediately when Jesus says, not even close. Now is the time to look forward. I'm out. See, I'm convinced that sometimes our last best moment is what can make it hard for us to see our next great adventure. And I think that Jesus knows that sometimes all of us we need a little bit of a push if we're going to keep on dreaming.

Jeremy Duncan: 20:35

Here's the thing though, He doesn't leave them blind. He helps narrate what's possible. In the verse right before we read earlier, verse 8 in Acts 1, these are Jesus' last words before his grand exit. He says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And granted this is one of those verses that sounds a little bit pious.

Jeremy Duncan: 21:01

Right? The cower and spirit and witnessing and the ends of the earth and all of that. But there are some very practical implications here that are bound up in the prepositions and the punctuation. So you have 4 geographies listed, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the Earth. Thing is there's only 3 prepositions here.

Jeremy Duncan: 21:25

Now most English translations do a really good job of representing this with the punctuation. They have Jesus saying, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem comma, in Judea and Samaria comma, and to the ends of the earth period. And even though there's technically no punctuation in the Greek, that's perfect. That's exactly how this sentence is structured. Because each of these 3 geographies represent something for Jesus.

Jeremy Duncan: 21:57

1st, there's Jerusalem. That's where the disciples are right now. That's where they've just experienced their darkest low and their most brilliant high. This is your 10th anniversary service today or your wedding day or that moment your story took a turn for the better. Whatever place it was where you began to believe that tomorrow could be something new for you.

Jeremy Duncan: 22:19

It's where it all starts. And you witness the divine and you should celebrate that. But it's just the beginning. Because then there's Judea and Samaria. And this was an interesting because these are slightly larger regions than the city, and in fact, Jerusalem was in Judea.

Jeremy Duncan: 22:43

So the scope is expanding a bit here. But the really intriguing bit is that Jesus shapes this next call with an ampersand, Judea and Samaria. And if you recall stories like the good Samaritan or the Samaritan woman at the well that Jesus encounters during his life, you might have some inkling that Judea and Samaria have a somewhat complicated history. The Samaritan culture was one born from the Assyrian conquest centuries earlier, and the Samaritans were the descendants of both Jewish and Assyrian ancestors. But to make things spicy, Samaria sat directly between the 2 most important Jewish regions of the time, Judea in the south and Galilee, where Jesus was from in the north.

Jeremy Duncan: 23:32

That meant there's a lot of tension between Jewish and Samaritan populations. And here Jesus says that your resurrection story starts exactly where you are, wherever you have experienced the divine undeniably, but it rolls out immediately into all the conflicts that spill about around you. You don't go from the beauty of resurrection straight home to cozy Judea, you go to your neighbors and your neighborhoods to all the people near you to begin the work of removing the commas where ampersands are possible. I mean think about this. It's one of the only things we have recorded from the resurrected Jesus.

Jeremy Duncan: 24:16

It's the last commission he gives to his friends and it's this. Guys, there is no more us versus them in the light of resurrection. There is only an and now. Is only your neighbor, only the work of reconciliation that you get to be part of. And that I suppose is almost like a whole another kind of resurrection Because it leads us to the grand finale, the one that I think permanently dismantles any decision for us to stop and pat ourselves on the back for a little too long.

Jeremy Duncan: 24:57

Because the story of new life that finds us exactly where we are, that breathes new breath into our lungs, that motivates us to repair the relationships around us, it continues on to the ends of the earth. It's a permanent and a perpetual reminder that there was always a next chapter, no matter how far we've come. And listen, that goes for your faith. There's always a new question for you to ask and deconstruct and rebuild into something more durable. It goes for your career.

Jeremy Duncan: 25:41

There's always something new for you to learn and apply and take pride in knowing that you have mastered. It goes for your relationships, your marriages. There's always room for you to do the work to become more self aware, more motivated by kindness, and less driven by anxiety. But today, it definitely goes for us as a church as well. Because anniversaries are wonderful, and they're worth celebrating.

Jeremy Duncan: 26:14

But there are always new flourishes to plant, New people to encounter, new stories to learn, new conversations to enter, new neighborhoods to fight for, new strangers to become, new friends that transform us into new people. And that is the work not of resuscitation, but of resurrection. Resurrection into new life and new breath. Resurrection into that divine purpose that is always calling us ahead to what God has next. So commons, why are you staring at the sky when the opportunity to love your neighbor well for another decade is standing right in front of all of us ringing the bell?

Jeremy Duncan: 27:10

Let's pray. God, for all the ways that you have been more gracious to us than we deserve, more kind to us than we even realize, more good to us than we will probably ever be able to make sense of. We turn towards you with grateful hearts and we do the work to remember well so that we can honor you in that. But god, in the midst of that moment, we ask that your spirit be present to each of us taking all of that gratitude and pointing it toward what's next. Our next friendship, our next opportunity, the next stranger we meet who could become our next best friend.

Jeremy Duncan: 28:04

All of these opportunities to continue to push your kingdom, your grace, and your peace farther out into your world. For all of that, we are inspired. We ask for the motivation, the courage, the bravery, the energy, the imagination to take one step forward at a time. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.

Jeremy Duncan: 28:34

Hey. Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at commons, you can head to our website commons.church for more information. You can find us on all of the socials at commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community.

Jeremy Duncan: 28:52

You can also join our Discord server. Head to commons.church/discord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week.

Jeremy Duncan: 29:09

We'll talk to you soon.