Root + Branch Church

Neil Ellingson - On Gratitude - Nov 8th, 2014

Part of a sermon series on how to be more grateful, the How-to-be-Grateful series if you will, co-pastor Neil talks about how you can't force it, how he broke his arm, and so much more. 

Reading:

Philippians 4:4-9

4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

Andrew Packman - Ice Balls or Fire Balls - November 2nd, 2014

On All Saints Day, Christians have traditionally remembered those they have lost. Co-pastor reflects on the hope that despite the reality of death, all will be well.

Readings:

Revelation 7:9-17

• After this I looked, and behold, a great countless crowd from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and with palms in their hands; and they shouted loudly saying, "Salvation to our God who is enthroned and to the Lamb." And all the angels stood around the throne with the elders and the four living creatures and prostrated themselves before the throne and worshipped God saying, "Amen; praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might to our God forever and ever; Amen." And one of the elders spoke to me saying, "Who are these who are clothed in bright robes and from whence have they come?" And I said to him, "My Lord, you know". And he said to me, "These are the people who have come through the great ordeal and have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  On this account, they are before the throne of God, and they worship night and day in his Sanctuary, and he who is enthroned will shelter them.  They shall not hunger anymore or thirst anymore, neither shall the sun nor any scorching heat fall upon them, because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

"Four Poems in One" 

Anne Porter

At six o'clock this morning

I saw the rising sun

Resting on the ground like a boulder

In the thicket back of the school,

A single great ember

About the height of a man

* * *

Night has gone like a sickness,

The sky is pure and whole.

Our Lady of Poland spire

Is rosy with first light,

Starlings above it shatter their dark flock.

Notes of the Angelus

Leave their great iron cup

And slowly, three by three

Visit the Polish gardens round about,

Dahlias shaggy with frost

Sheds with their leaning tools

Rosebushes wrapped in burlap

Skiffs upside down on trestles

Like dishes after supper.

* * *

These are the poems I'd show you

But you're no longer alive.

The cables creaked and shook

Lowering the heavy box.

The rented artificial grass

Still left exposed

That gritty gash of earth

Yellow and mixed with stones

Taking your body

That never in this world

Will we see again, or touch.

* * *

We know little

We can tell less

But one thing I know

One thing I can tell

I will see you again in Jerusalem

Which is of such beauty

No matter what country you come from

you will be more at home there

Than ever with father or mother

Than even with lover or friend

And once we're within her borders

Death will hunt us in vain.

Timothy Kim - Chinesus - Oct 25th, 2014

Tim talks about how our experiences affect our ideas of the divine...and other stuff.

Readings: John 10: 22-27

22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah,^* tell us plainly.’²⁵Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; ²⁶but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 

Neil Ellingson - Big Pictures - October 5th, 2014

Co-pastor Neil Ellingson talks about how our pictures of reality can be bigger than we might imagine. From a Sunday service on October 5th, 2014.

Readings:

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

20:1 Then God spoke all these words:

20:2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

20:3 you shall have no other gods before me.

20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

20:7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

20:8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.

20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

20:13 You shall not murder.

20:14 You shall not commit adultery.

20:15 You shall not steal.

20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

20:18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance,

20:19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die."

20:20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."

Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-c.395), from Life of Moses:

 Hope always draws the soul from the beauty which is seen to what is beyond, always kindles the desire for the hidden through what is constantly perceived. Therefore, the ardent lover of beauty, although receiving what is always visible as an image of what he desires, yet longs to be filled with the very stamp of the archetype.

And the bold request which goes up the mountains of desire asks this: to enjoy the Beauty not in mirrors and reflections, but face to face. The divine voice granted what was requested in what was denied, showing in a few words an immeasurable depth of thought. The munificence of God assented to the fulfillment of his desire, but did not promise any cessation or satiety of the desire.

He would not have shown himself to his servant if the sight were such as to bring the desire of the beholder to an end, since the true sight of God consists in this, that the one who looks up to God never ceases in that desire. For he says: You cannot see my face, for man cannot see me and live.

Andrew Packman - Kenosis For You - September 28, 2014

Co-Pastor Andrew Packman, during dinner church, talks about giving, emptying, finding, and carpe-ing the diem. 

Readings: 

“Everything is Borrowed” (excerpt)

--The Streets

Some days I feel I’m getting smaller and smaller,

But some nights, I seem to grow taller and taller.

And we keep shrinkin’ and shrinkin’ but this will not finish.

You’re never nothing, if you didn’t disappear.

Just when I discovered the meaning of life, they changed it.

Just when I’m loving life, it seems to start raining.

I pulled the sail safe switch, sea sail and I’m into the stars.

I love the rain on my scars.  The sky’s now red, my eyes reflect jets.

Smiling at this blessing, this life is the best.

I came to this world with nothing

And I leave with nothing but love

Everything else is just borrowed

If it’s bleak, or if the week’s leaking down the street

Or if any day’s wasted, I want to face facts.

My time on this earth is my only penny,

Wise is the gent counting every moment spent.

I don’t want to explain things, don’t wanna fill in the gaps,

I want to look at my friends and in that minute be at

I came to this world with nothing

And I leave with nothing but love

Everything else is just borrowed

It’s a bit like luck, you can only seem

To borrow it, you can’t keep it.

When the wind of change whistles into play

Will I blink or flinch away?

The wind of change won’t whistle me away

If I spin my tails and sail.

And sail away, let yesterday become today.

Excerpt from “Up from Pain”

-- Charles Blow, NY Times Sunday Review 9.19.2014

Daring to step into oneself is the bravest, strangest, most natural, most terrifying thing a person can do, because when you cease to wrap yourself in artifice you are naked, and when you are naked you are vulnerable.

But vulnerability is the leading edge of truth. Being willing to sacrifice a false life is the only way to live a true one.

Philippians 2:3-13

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interest of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Grandparents Day Stories on September 7th, 2014

Caroline, Riley, Patrick, and Tanya, people in the Root and Branch Community, share their stories about their grandparents as we reflect on caring for those we love, aging, and the ways God speaks to us through family. 

Readings:

Zechariah 8:3-6

3 Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts shall be called the holy mountain.4 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. 5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. 6 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the Lord of hosts?

From Home by Marilynne Robinson

 

Those children had, almost all of them, bent their heads over whatever work she gave them, even though their bodies were awkward and restless with the onset of adulthood, fate creeping through their veins and glands and follicles like a subtle poison, making them images of their parents and strangers to themselves...

 

Why do we have to read poetry? … Read it and you’ll know why. If you still don’t know, read it again. And again. … People have always made poetry, she told them. Trust that it will matter to you…

 

Who gets to say what’s good and what’s bad? I do, she said. For the moment. You don’t have to agree, but listen. Some of them did listen. This seemed to her to be perfectly miraculous. … Could it be that certain of them lifted their faces to her so credulously because what she told them was true, that they were human beings, keepers of lore, makers of it?

 

Her father taught his children, never doubting, that there was a single path from antiquity to eternity. Learn the psalms and ponder the ways of the early church. Know what must be known. Ancient fathers taught their ancient children, who taught their ancient children, these very things. Puritan Milton with his pagan muses. It is like a voice heard from another room, singing for the pleasure of the song, and then you know it, too, and through you it moves by accident and necessity down generations…

 

No need to be a minister. To be a teacher was an excellent thing. Those vacant looks might be inwardness. The young might have been restless around any primal fire where any elder was saying, know this. Certainly they would have been restless. Their bodies were consumed with the business of lengthening limbs, sprouting hair, feeding themselves for procreation. Even so, sometimes she felt a silence in the room deeper than ordinary silence. 

Neil Ellingson - Strangers to Neighbors - August 3rd, 2014

Given during the Sunday morning service on August 3rd. 

Biblical Reading:

Matthew 25:31-46

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’ 

Extra-Biblical reading:

Thomas Merton, from "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander"

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun….Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time.

Timothy Kim - Sources of What

Tim, co-pastor of Root and Branch Church, on Christians, Atheists, Spiritual but not Religious, Religious but not Spiritual, and all that stuff. Warning: There are a few naughty words.

Readings:

Revelation 3:14-18

14 ‘And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation:

15 ‘I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. 16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 

Excerpt from “Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard”

The spiritual differs from the religious in being able to endure isolation. The rank of a spiritual person is proportionate to his strength for enduring isolation, whereas we religious people are constantly in need of "the others," the herd. We religious folks die, or despair, if we are not reassured by being in the assembly, of the same opinion as the congregation, and so on. But the Christianity of the New Testament is precisely related to the isolation of the spiritual man.

We all know what it is to play warfare in mock battle. It means to mimic everything, just as it is in war. The troops are drawn up, they march into the field, seriousness is evident in every eye, but also courage and enthusiasm, the orderlies rush back and forth intrepidly, the commanders voice is heard, the signals, the battle cry, the volley of shooting, the thunder of cannon  everything exactly as in war, lacking only one thing: the danger.

So it is with playing Christianity, that is, imitating by way of Christian preaching in such a way that everything, absolutely everything is included in as alluring a form as possible. Only one thing is lacking: the danger. 

Neil Ellingson - Like a Boss

Co-Pastor Neil Ellingson sermonizes on Sunday, 7/3/14.

Readings:

Genesis 1:26-28 (Common English Bible)

Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”

God created humanity

in God’s own image,

in the divine image God created them,

male and female God created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it.”

From the Sibylline Oracles:

“The earth will belong equally to all, undivided by walls or fences….Lives will be in common and wealth will have no division. For there will be no poor man there, no rich, and no tyrant, no slave. Further, no one will be either great or small anymore. No kings, no leaders. All will be equal together.”

Patrick Derdall - The Gift of Absence

From Dinner Church on 6/28/14

Patrick Derdall is a Master of Divinity student at the University of Chicago, and a Master of Guitar Feedback at Root and Branch Church.

Readings:

Psalm 104:1-17, 24

Poem By Pessoa:

To think about God is to disobey God,

Since God wanted us not to know him,

Which is why he didn't reveal himself to us...

Let's be simple and calm,

Like the trees and streams,

And God will love us, making us

Us even as the trees are trees

And the streams are streams,

And will give us greenness in the spring, which is its season,

And a river to go when end...

And he will give us nothing more,

since to give us more would make us even less