The Nexus Podcast

Brad Watson
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

A weekly podcast from Nexus Church in downtown Kitchener, Ontario.

  1. 6d ago

    Diamonds for the Poor (S17 Episode3)

    Friends, we are back at it again, and the word is that we will be back in Iona Hall this Sunday, which feels like great news! But, as we continue our journey of learning the art of reading Scripture well, I want to ask this Sunday what it is that connects a diamond ring, the Working Centre, and parents who wear pajamas to school drop-off? This Sunday, we are going to follow a surprising story from Dorothy Day into one of Scripture’s most familiar, and most demanding, assertions: that every person bears the image of God. Now, saying things like “all people are created equal” feels commonplace and obvious to us, but in a world constantly judging and ranking us, what exactly do we mean by that? Along the way, I will have a few little rants and petty grievances to share with you all, but it is all aimed at us considering an important question: can we recognize someone’s dignity when we don’t admire them, agree with them, or understand their life? From political loyalties to the suffering on our own downtown streets, we’ll explore what it takes to keep seeing the humanity in one another.

  2. Sep 24

    An Ontology of Life and Peace (S17 Episode2)

    Friends, last week we stepped behind the plate to make some calls about the Bible’s strike zone. This Sunday, Genesis gets the umpire’s attention. What kind of pitch is its creation story? (I promise to end the baseball metaphors when the Jays finally end my misery). Anywho, beyond many of the science textbook distractions about the book, I am inclined to think Genesis is addressing a much older, and more urgent, question. What kind of world are we living in? As we explore that, we’ll encounter an ancient Babylonian sea monster, a carefully tended bonsai tree, a French existentialist, a couple of summer blockbusters, and one extraordinarily courageous prisoner at Auschwitz. There will be some lighter moments along the way, but also some headier terrain, and a bit of heaviness as we consider the costly love of a man named Maximilian Kolbe. So, what is really at stake in the opening chapters of Genesis? Perhaps much more than how or when the universe began. These ancient words may be making a daring claim about the deepest nature of reality and about the kind of people we are called to become within it.

  3. Sep 14

    The Strike Zone (S17 EPisode1)

    Trying to be a person of faith is such a strange assignment, eh? Frederick Buechner once wrote, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen.” He certainly got that right. There is beauty everywhere, but also more than enough of the terrible to keep a person awake at night. How does one believe in a world like that? Well, this season at Nexus we’re exploring The Strange Art of Believing in a Terrible and Beautiful World, because, well, to practise faith these days requires some imagination, a little courage, and the willingness to admit that we’re still figuring it out. This Sunday, we begin with a sermon I am calling The Strike Zone, which is about how we stay in dialogue with that strange old book we call the Bible. We know that anyone can pick up a Bible and make some calls with it. Then again, anyone can pick up a reciprocating saw, and some of us really shouldn’t. How do we learn to handle Scripture well, especially when everyone seems so certain they’re reading it correctly? I want to explore all that and more this week. So, expect a questionable marriage experiment, a crash course in Bible safety, a nineteenth-century Scotsman stepping in as umpire, and a family reunion with a surprising reception. We’ll also consider why getting something wrong about the Bible can feel so frightening to us and why we might have more room to learn than we thought. And given that I'm all in on the Toronto Blue Jays right now, there will also be a whole lot of baseball metaphors, because the first thing to learn about the art of reading this book is how to call The Strike Zone. So, batter up! (yes, it felt as cheesy to write “batter up” as it probably did to read it, but I am going with it folks because of the baseball metaphors). - Brad Watson

  4. Jun 21

    Windows to the Wind (S16 Episode40)

    Well, friends, just like that, we have arrived at our season finale. For our final Sunday together before the summer, I want to close with a question worth carrying over the next few months. When was the last time you experienced God? Not just thought about God, agreed with an idea about God, or heard someone else speak about God. I mean, sensed God’s nearness in some real way. I think for many of us, the experiential side of faith can feel complicated. We may be open to the Holy Spirit in theory, but many of us are not exactly charismatic in practice. And so, we may not have dramatic stories of wind, fire, prophecy, or tongues, but I imagine many of us still long to know that God is near. So, for this final Sunday, I am working off a hunch, and it is this: the experience of God is more common than we realize, but quieter than we expect. To explore that, I want to showcase five of the quieter windows through which the presence of God may become known to us. And with that, I can’t help but wonder if the invitation for us this summer is simply to open the windows, make room, and pay attention. Because sometimes, when the window is open, the wind comes.

  5. Jun 9

    Into The Looking Glass: Anthropology (S16 Episode39)

    This Sunday we’re doing something a little different: Into the Looking Glass: Anthropology Over the past several months, our Anthropology series has sparked conversations, questions, disagreements, insights, and more than a few stories. It’s been one of those series that seems to have stayed with people. So rather than simply moving on, we’re taking one last look. Join me (Sarah) as I walk us back through the series and revisit some of its biggest ideas: What are human beings really like? Are we limited, conflicted, and self-centred? What happens when anthropology meets relationships, politics, and faith? And what might grace have to do with all of it? The best part: along the way, we'll hear reflections from a number of Nexus folks whose own stories, questions, and experiences were stirred up by the series. Some agreed. Some pushed back. Some found language for things they’d been wrestling with for years. Whether you heard every sermon, missed a few, or are joining us for the first time, we think you'll find something worth reflecting on.

  6. Jun 3

    This Is Us (S16 Episode38)

    Well folks, the end of our season is fast approaching, and so this Sunday represents a sort of epilogue to our anthropology series. Instead of bringing another teaching or abstract idea, I simply want to tell you a story that forces us to ask one of the oldest and most uncomfortable questions there is: what are human beings, really? I want to tell you the devastating story behind one of J.M.W. Turner’s most haunting paintings. By it, we will look at how easily people can be reduced to labels, categories, or even cargo, and why the Jesus Path claim that every person bears the image of God is far more disruptive than we often realize. This will be a heavier morning, but not a hopeless one. So, as I close my part in this series, we’ll ask what it means to be people who can honestly look in the mirror while still trusting that the first word over humanity is image, and the final word is grace.

  7. Jun 3

    The Spirit in Us - A Wild Goose Chase? (S16 Episode37)

    n her well-known poem, “Wild Geese”, Mary Oliver says: Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- over and over announcing your place in the family of things. While we might be more familiar with the image of the Holy Spirit coming as a Dove, offering comfort and guidance, the Spirit can also be experienced as Celtic Christians describe - as a Wild Goose, startling us out of our comfort zones. Which image do you lean towards? If you’re not sure, consider how obvious things need to be to get your attention. Whether it’s in the world around you (like a literal sign, dishes to be done, someone needing help) or in your internal world (blind spots and motivations), how “loud” do things need to get for you to notice them? Do you need flashing lights on a billboard, or just a little nudge? And…is there a difference between what you want and what you need?  This Sunday is Pentecost on the church calendar when the church remembers the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples huddled in an upper room in Jerusalem. Some wild things happened that day, things that both disrupted and comforted, empowered and calmed those who were present. They were met in ways they had never been met before.  We’ll take some time to look back and dig into that story in Acts 2, and make room to notice where that same Spirit might be at work in our lives even now. We’ll pick up where I left off last time, remembering our beginnings in Genesis 1 & 2 - Original Blessing - and see how that beginning informs our pneumatology - our understanding of the Holy Spirit (pneuma in Greek).

  8. May 25

    A Welcome for the Weary (S16 Episode36)

    Well friends, this Sunday marks the final week of our anthropology series, and we’ll be wrapping it up by asking what happens when anthropology meets faith? Throughout this series, we’ve explored what it means to be human: limited, conflicted, self-centered, and deeply in need of mercy. But this final week brings that conversation into the life of faith itself. What if the goal of the Jesus Path is not to become the kind of person who needs less grace, but to become someone less afraid of needing grace in the first place? As we close the series, we’ll return to Jesus’ invitation, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” as a final way of reminding ourselves that the Jesus Path offers real humans incredibly good news.

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About

A weekly podcast from Nexus Church in downtown Kitchener, Ontario.

Information

  • Creator
    Brad Watson
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2013 . All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Nexus Podcast