The Nexus Podcast

Welcome to our new series "Of Wolves & Walking & The Dangerous Book of Acts".  It starts here with Pablo Escobar. From a zoo in Columbia, to the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park, the apostle Paul’s ecosystem analogy, trophic cascades, Christmas gift baskets, Black Lives Matter, and churches facing fines for meeting in person during lockdown – listen in as Brad brings it all together as a kick-off to our first series of 2021.

What has Nexus as a community lost because of Covid?  Has not being together in person for church changed anything?  Watching Church in your PJs has it's up side.  But is there a downside?  Brad suggests we have lost at least one small but significant thing.  

 

 

A Christmas Eve reflection.

Through a short history of military tactics to some fields just outside of Bethlehem, this weeks talk contrasts the shock and awe used in war with the shock and awe used by Jesus.  What might it mean for our world to find its way home again?

Another exile story that speaks to the ache of being exiled at Christmas time.

In the second episode of the Advent-Exile series Brad takes us to the Exodus.  The Hebrew people find themselves wandering aimlessly in the dessert, experiencing some bizarre events.  In the midst of our own type of exile, might we learn from what the Hebrew's did with their strange experiences?  Listen in and find out.

This Sunday marks 38 weeks into the pandemic, the beginning of Advent and our return to online-only services at Nexus.  With exile on his mind, Brad launches the new Advent series, Life in Exile.  The Bible has no shortage of exile stories.  This week, Brad highlights Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three Hebrew exiles who perform a daring act of civil disobedience and face the most extreme of consequences.  

 

 

This episode brings the "Goat on Cow" series to a close with a look at some Celtic spirituality and what it might teach us about bumping into God.

 

 

In this week's talk Brad admits that very few spiritual practices have actually stuck for him over the years.  However there are two Christian Contemplative practices that have.  He shares them with us and invites us to find practices that will help us strengthen our eyes to notice our encounters with God.  

Brad suggests that although an intellectual faith alone is insufficient for the long haul, there are inherent dangers in prioritizing personal experiences.  Through stories of 3 individuals and their vastly different experiences with God, Brad offers us a way to "test the spirits".  
 

 
.