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.

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.

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.