The Nexus Podcast

With a little history of marriage behind us, it is time to start climbing some ladders. I want to peek at three paradigms for marriage we find in Scripture. Of course, we aren’t looking for marriage tips from David, or any other Biblical character for that matter. Rather, what I hope we will discover are paradigms in Scripture that might allow us to ease the pressure in marriage, while also reenchanting it. There is so much juicy stuff to get to, like what the eclipse this past week can teach us about marriage, why we might want to consider sex in marriage through the lens of justice, what the rabbinic wisdom of the Talmud can teach us about sex, when it is time for therapy, the tough choices in marriage, why we need a Trinitarian theology of “one flesh”, the business metaphor that defines successful marriages, and, of course, how to keep climbing the marriage ladder. And oh, I am bringing along a few choice quotes from my new favourite marriage guru, Harrison Scott Key, whose wife left him for “the human equivalent of Diet Mountain Dew.” Lines like that just bless my heart!

we are pressing on into our season of The Tensions. We have explored our tensions with God, ourselves, and our faith tradition. It is time now for us to consider relational tensions: the tensions we experience with others, be that in our marriages, friendships, or communities.  Many years ago, I did a sermon entitled Sex on a Ladder, which we will return to in the next few weeks, but for this series, I wanted to expand on that teaching by going wider, deeper, and further. So, to begin, we are going on an odyssey adventure: A Brief History of Marriage. We have some fun and wild places to explore. History is a strange and fascinating beast, so we will start by debunking eight myths about the history of marriage (for instance, did marriage come about to protect or oppress women?). Then, we will explore why the Church was largely silent about marriage for 1200 years and the four main reasons the Church got into the business of solemnizing marriages (I am confident they will surprise you). Along the way we will learn about the most common case brought before courts in the Middle Ages (it has to do with marriage) and the rather uncomfortable ritual men had to undergo to annul a marriage (Kristen won’t even let me share the more "juicy" details of the ritual). We will of course land in our present day to discover the two social factors and pressures that are placing more tension on marriages today than ever before. 

For Easter Sunday, well, we have something special cooking, folks. The death we see on Good Friday will have one final word (which will be a treat for the eyes and ears) before we welcome in Resurrection Sunday!  I can hardly wait. Eliza and our Nexus Kids are contributing to the morning, which is always special. For my part, I want to present the meaning, promise, and hope of the resurrection in seven distinct movements. If I had my way, I would greet you all on Sunday morning with a mimosa for everyone. Alas, my hands are tied. Even still, I know this weekend will be meaningful, and a reminder of all that we can’t leave behind.

For Good Friday, we will look at the cross from a most unusual angle: aesthetically. 2000 years ago, the cross was an instrument of torture. 2000 years later it has been the subject of more artistic depictions than any other object or event in history. As one tourist to the National Gallery of Art tweeted after visiting the museum, “Well, that’s Western art for you. A thousand years of crucifixions then stripes.” I find that to be hilarious, but also telling. For centuries now, people all over the world have come to see an ancient form of torture as . . . beautiful? On Good Friday we will discover how that sentiment became possible.

Friends, we are getting close to the finale of our Revisionist History series. On Palm Sunday (March 24) I want to talk not only of Jesus' triumphal entry in Jerusalem prior to his death and resurrection, but I want to help us locate ourselves in the long and storied history of the church. The whole series has been moving us in this direction. Before we get there, however, we have one final Sunday to reflect on the legacy and impact of the church and Christian faith throughout the centuries. To that end, I have a few simple questions for us to reflect on leading up to Sunday. Is the world getting better? If you take a wide lens view of history, do you think humanity is collectively progressing? Are things better today for the world than they were decades or centuries ago? Are we living in the greatest time in all of history? Is there a moral arc to the universe?

Hello Nexus! I'm on this week, considering the Church (the big, universal Church) - in its beauty and brokenness. Sometimes, the gap between what the Church is and what it could be is so very large. It’s like Longfellow’s little girl with a curl - do you know that one? There was a little girl,             Who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead.             When she was good,             She was very good indeed, But when she was bad she was horrid. Lots of us have experienced both sides: when it's good, it's so good. But when it's bad, it's really bad. So bad, we might give up on it.  “Most progressive evangelicals, having had a brutal disappointing, even abusive, experience in the Church, see no future for the Church as a change agent in our culture.” - David Fitch Because of both of those extremes - that the Church can be so good and the Church can be so bad, I’m excited to explore it together. What is the Church in general? What are we, and what are we doing? What is God doing? How and why? Why does it seem that God keeps choosing people? Lots of questions, lots of ideas and images. I’ll explain why my passion for my favourite pastime might be connected to why I’m still here. I’m excited to dig into this with you!

Friends, our Revisionist History series this Sunday has us re-examining what, until recently, had been a human universal in the world. Throughout the ages, this truth was self-evident: if you are on the winning side of war or hold great power, you get to own other people. What slavery has looked like over the centuries has varied, but behind each variation was a simple notion: people can be possessions. Most of us are familiar with how Christians participated in, and at times perpetuated, this now damned institution. What we may not be familiar with is the driving force that put an end to it and gave us what are now the familiar terms “human rights” and “crimes against humanity.” 

Friends, our Revisionist History series this Sunday has us weighing into the turbulent waters of sexual ethics. The Church has not always had the greatest reputation when it comes to such matters, but what may come as a surprise to many of us is that Jesus and the early church launched the first sexual revolution in all of history! The ripple effect of that is still being felt today. The sexual world of antiquity was turned upside down by Jesus and his first followers. So, to the legacy of the first sexual revolution we are headed this Sunday. Trigger Warning: The sermon on Sunday contains references to ancient sexual norms which some may find offensive. Further, the sermon contains lengthy sections from Rachael DenHollander’s victim impact statement from the trial of Larry Nassar in 2018. Listener, and parental discretion, is strongly advised.

Friends, there is so much happening this Sunday! You won’t want to miss it. First, we are continuing with our Revisionist History series by exploring the one passage from Scripture that I think has caused more harm, death, and great evil than any other (I think the passage will surprise you). We will be reflecting on the great sins of our faith tradition, and the important lessons we can draw from them.

This week for some Revisionist History, we start with a very controversial Tweet by the notoriously adored, and reviled, atheist, Richard Dawkins. What he tweeted sounds controversial to our ears, but what Dawkins had done is merely parrot an ancient story, one that has been rehashed and retold down through the generations: from Plato and Aristotle, to Nietzsche and Himmler, to the greatest of documentary filmmakers, Werner Herzog. Dawkins was telling the story of “nature.” In contrast to that story, something new seemed to emerge in the first century. A radically different story that highlighted an experience and emotion centered in the bowels, of all places. And this very unfamiliar emotional response in the ancient world would start a movement that, over time, would launch universal healthcare, as well as end infanticide and the gladiatorial games forever. How could such a thing happen? Trigger warning to all, this Sunday we will be talking about some sensitive subjects like abortion and infanticide. My goal is not to explore the ethical debate around those issues, but to showcase how radically some things have changed over time. Of course, I will also need to tell you about a young boy I met this summer. A boy named Hudson, and how my response to him left me thinking God often works in our lives in the most obvious of ways...we just don’t see it.

Well, after making some rather bold and audacious claims last Sunday, it is time to settle into this Revisionist History series, and I am excited to get at it by looking at the rather curious case of “equality.” I am hoping this Sunday will be lots of fun with much to chew on as we dive into some unsettling, but rather profound questions. To that end, we are going to need to talk about the whispered and hushed conversations we all had during COVID, why Lord Sumption landed himself in some serious hot water over some COVID remarks, why we can’t help but reach for the sacred when discussing the value of human life, what it might sound like to debate Plato on his philosophy of inherent human inequality, what Yuval Noah Harari (the atheist) has to say about human rights, and why I woke up rather confused after a dream about Taylor Swift. Beyond that, we will need to examine why Sam Harris’ (the atheist) "water glass" analogy exposes both the good and ill of believing in God, what kind of water I can convince you all to buy and then drink, what losing Christian stories unleashes on the world, and why people stopped caring about threats of hell after a certain historic landmark. Oh my, so many interesting places to go. I think it will get us all thinking in ways we may have never thought about before.

Well, it is time to embark on a new series that will take us all the way to Easter. As part of our year in The Tensions, I want to take some time to explore the tensions we often feel with the Church and the history of our faith. Those looking to cast stones at Christianity over the centuries have plenty of rocks to choose from: the Crusades, the Inquisition, Catholic vs Protestant wars, slavery, and sexism, to name but a few. Even today, the Church continues to be rocked by abuse of power and sex scandals, even as we come to terms with the Church’s role in residential schools here in Canada. Is it possible to be Christian today without feeling a sense of shame? Has the Christian faith been good, or bad, for the world? For this series, I want to try out my best Malcolm Gladwell and do a little Revisionist History. I want to take us on a journey into the overlooked and misunderstood aspects of Christian history and how the cross has shaped our world, for good and ill. And so, into the good, the bad, and the ugly we go. My hope is that this series will be provocative, unsettling, challenging, but most importantly, full of hope! For this Sunday, I want to start by examining Three Asinine Stories that Remade the World. These stories are familiar to many but have so radically altered the world we live in; it is sometimes easy to forget just how powerful they are. In fact, you may not even believe these stories to be true. Further, you might even think them silly, but what these stories spawned is now considered orthodoxy to the Western mind. So, off we go on what I promise will be a most fascinating journey!

Continuing on with Jesus’ question, “What do you want?”, we’re taking the opportunity to step back and consider our wanting - a complex topic. Often, desires can surface when we look at others’ lives and we might turn a little green…what do we do about that? We’ll explore schadenfreude, what gives envy such a bad name, and how it can actually serve us well, inviting us into connection with ourselves, with others, and with God.

Friends, we are going to spend a few Sundays before Lent exploring some of the questions Jesus posed in the gospels. The first question, which Jesus poses at the beginning of the Gospel of John, is simply, “What do you want?” My, that is a good question. What do I want? What do you want? What do we want? Initially, the question isn’t hard to answer, plenty of ideas come to mind. But if you keep asking the question, and keep rolling it around in your mind, things start to get interesting. 

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a thoughtful, meaningful, and restful holiday season. 2024 is upon us though and we are heading back Into the Tensions shortly here at Nexus. We are going to do that starting Sunday, January 14th, by focusing on the questions Jesus has for us. Oh my, I am excited to jump into that. For this Sunday though, we want to spend time considering the song, poem, and word of prophecy that an old man named Simeon delivers to Mary, Jesus’ mother. Mary doesn’t get a lot of attention in Protestant circles, but I want to focus on her as an archetype for all who follow the Jesus Path. I think the message will be sobering, but I hope it is also encouraging for us all as we set out together again on the Jesus Path for 2024.

The liturgical season of Advent, meaning “coming”, begins this Sunday, and so begins the season of waiting. As if aware of our theme for the year, Sarah Bessey says, “When people talk about 'living in the tension,' I always think of Advent. It’s the time when we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus while naming that we are still waiting here for every tear to be wiped away. I think of the waiting for the Christ child, yes, and I think of the still-waiting for all things to be made right, for our longing for Shalom.” There is a tension in this season - the tension of waiting for the good news to be here now, and seeing at the same time, that it is not yet fully realized. As we move through the month of December, we’ll light the advent candles of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. We’ll be looking at four biblical songs - one each Sunday. This week, I’ll be preaching on Mary’s Magnificat - considering its revolutionary and subversive nature, and how it has brought both comfort and unease. It has been banned, truncated, simply ignored, yet also highly esteemed and used for political purposes. What does it say to people to cause all of that tension? What might it have to say to us? It’s full of good news - but is it good news for everyone? Come explore the longest set of words spoken (or maybe sung) by a woman in the New Testament (a poor, young, unmarried pregnant woman at that!) and stay afterwards to enjoy the creativity of the Nexus community with our Maker’s Market.

Everything is sped up in the cult of speed. We all feel it. There is never enough time. Ah, but time can be redeemed. This Sunday, that is where we are heading. A humble attempt to take back and redeem a slice of our time. It is possible. To that end, well, we are going to need to talk about heaven (seems fair given how much airtime hell has had the past few weeks). That journey will take us from N.T. Wright, to Rob Bell, to C.S. Lewis and finally to the comedian, Neal Brennan. From there, we will need to discuss how citizenship and culture create calendars, why I struggled to play Lysander in my high school’s production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream, why we mistake weekends with Sabbath, and why, despite all its promise and potential, Sabbath is one of the hardest things to sell people on.

Friends, it is time to move beyond our tensions with God and consider some of the tensions we experience with ourselves. There are many, and we could spend an entire season looking into them. But from now until Advent I want to focus on the tensions we experience in our relationship with time and space. For this week, I want to start with a story in the gospels about two sisters: Martha and Mary. I have come to see their story, and Martha’s dilemma, as indicative of our own time. To do that, we will explore how the acceleration of technology, social change, and the pace of life have coalesced into a unique plague of our time: zeitkrankheit (time, or hurry, sickness). This feels like an important one to me. I have been chewing on this stuff for quite a while and am excited to dig in. There is a whole lot to discover and unpack along the way. Pit stops will include a brief history of standardized time, the trickery of time saving apps, why those for and against action to reduce climate change share the same moral framework, and of course, online pornography, the embarrassment of being caught eating nachos and cheese at a pool, email auto responders while you are on vacation, and what smart phones and banana peels have in common. Oh, and some pre-Sunday homework. Watch at least one episode (or season) of The Office before Sunday. Sound good?

Nexus friends! There are moments when I hint at things in sermons, without fully exploring them. The trouble is that can make things more confusing than clarifying. This past week I had some questions about the way I ended last Sunday with my sermon on hell, how to get there, and the hope after that. Some have asked, Brad, what were you hinting at toward the end? Brad, are you a universalist? Is Nexus universalist? Some might be wondering, wait, what is a universalist? Ah, this Sunday I want to take us into all of that. So, to all the big questions we go again. Sheep and goats, the meaning of obscure Greek words, Hitler and Dostoevsky, free will, and the open wound of life. I am looking forward to sharing with you once again as we try to finish out our introductory series on the tensions we experience with God. I hope to see you Sunday for, What Are You Hinting At?