Root + Branch Church

Co-pastor Neil Ellingson concludes our sermon mini-series on healing by reflecting on the power of words to harm and heal, the lessons we learn from kids who say whatever, and trite street art. 

Readings:

Matthew 8:5-17:

When he came into Kfar Nahum (Capernaum), a centurion, a Roman officer, came near, beseeching him. “Sir, my servant boy is lying paralyzed in my house, and in terrible pain.”

And he said to the centurion,

I will come to heal him.

The centurion answered, “Sir, I don’t deserve to have you under my roof. Only say a word and my son will be healed. I am also a man under orders, with soldiers under me, and I say to this man, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Hearing him, Jesus was amazed and said to his followers,

Yes, I tell you, in all of Israel

I have found no one with such deep faith,

and I tell you, many from the east and west

will come and lie down beside the table

to eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob

in the kingdom of the skies.

And other sons of the kingdom will be thrown out

into the far outer darkness.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus said to the centurion,

Go back to your home. Since you have had faith,

let the event take place for you.

And his son was healed in that hour.

Then Jesus went into the house of Peter, whose mother-in-law he saw lying in bed with a fever, and he touched her hand and the fever left her. She got up and served him.

That same evening they brought him many who were afflicted with demons. With a word he cast out the spirits and he healed all their sicknesses. He was fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah:

He attended our sicknesses

and removed our diseases.

Second Reading:

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. 

Root and Branch member Kjirsten Glessner shares her thoughts on the "slow church" movement and the ways we can orient our lives in order to build true community.

Co-pastor Tim Kim talks about the concept of the wounded healer and how we can be sources of healing for each other.

Readings:

“Through compassion it is possible to recognize that the craving for love that people feel resides also in our own hearts, that the cruelty that the world knows all too well is also rooted in our own impulses. Through compassion we also sense our hope for forgiveness in our friends’ eyes and our hatred in their bitter mouths. When they kill, we know that we could've done it; when they give life, we know that we can do the same. For a compassionate person nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying.”

-The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen

3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort. 4 He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God. 5 That is because we receive so much comfort through Christ in the same way that we share so many of Christ’s sufferings. 6 So if we have trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is to bring you comfort from the experience of endurance while you go through the same sufferings that we also suffer. 7 Our hope for you is certain, because we know that as you are partners in suffering, so also you are partners in comfort.

-2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Co-pastor Neil Ellingson on the dilemma of circumcision and what that has to do with being healed by GOD.

Pastoral Intern Keri Anderson talks about a difficult text in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus' is being whack to a Canaanite woman. 

Matthew 15:21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly. 

Co-pastor Andrew Packman on the idea of sabbath, taking a rest, and why we aren't as important as we'd like. 

Patrick Derdall tackles one of the more confusing and controversial teachings of Jesus: "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple." This sermon includes feedback, questions, and stories from the community that came up in the midst. 

Patrick Derdall is a long time member of the Root and Branch community and student at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Full bible passage from Luke 14: 25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

The other two readings, from the philosophers Martin Heidegger and Charles S. Pierce are not in the recording, nor do we have the correct excerpts to put up at this time. Just imagine that they were somewhat interesting in a philosophical sort of way.

Co-pastor Tim shares some thoughts on how we come to know what love is. 

This is a continuation of a series on Christian Vocabulary words.

Co-pastor Neil Ellingson on how the bible models a different way to interpret our own lives.

Pastoral intern Keri Anderson tackles the word sin in all its glory.

Readings:

Can poison taste of nectar?

Can venom taste of wine?

Yes, for we have licked the fruit and plucked it from the vine.

 

Yes, for we have tasted evil, succulent and sweet,

and passed it on for others,

to lick and taste

and eat.

 

-Steven James

Psalm 51:1-3

Have mercy on me, O God,

    according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

    blot out my transgressions.

 Wash away all my iniquity

    and cleanse me from my sin.

 For I know my transgressions,

    and my sin is always before me.