Root + Branch Church

Co-pastor Neil kicks of a sermon series on doubt. Listen, cuz its interesting. 

Doubt Month:

At Root and Branch, we like to talk a big game about how we’re a safe religious space to question even the most central tenets of religion. And simply because we’re trying to put down roots of commitment and to branch out with faith, doesn’t mean we won’t have moments or months where we feel like we’re treading water, and the waves are choppy, and was that a shark fin are you f-ing serious right now?

But is there a point where doubt itself must be put into question? Is there a fruitful kind of doubting and one that is just plain destructive and unhelpful? What’s the difference between intellectual doubt—say about the truth or falsehood of Biblical claims—and existential doubt—say in our own worthiness, or the basic trustworthiness of life, other people, and the God who gives reality to all of the above? Must they be connected at all?

Join us for our sermon series in April, International Doubt Month, and help us dig into doubt.

Doubt, thou shalt be doubted.

Co-Pastor Tim talks on Easter Sunday about asking the right questions and hearing God call our names.

Reading:

John 20:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Pastoral Intern Virginia White tackles Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus triumphantly rides a donkey into Jerusalem while people cheer. Jesus' triumph, however, might just be a story about how we may be empowered to reconsider the worst fears we have in our lives. 

Reading:

From the Gospel of Luke:

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” 

As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

Co-pastor Neil Ellingson offers a meditation on the story where Jesus' friend Mary washes his feet with expensive perfume and everyone loses their minds. 

Reading:

John 12:

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them[a] with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii[b] and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it[c] so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Root and Branch Co-Founder, Andrew Packman, returns to talk about how we might figure out what God wants us to do (if God even has such a desire) with our lives. Andrew helped start Root and Branch as a pastor and is stepping down from that roll due to circumstances in his life. What circumstances? Listen and find out!!!

Longtime Root and Branch-er, Justin Bloesch, shares some thoughts about what outrage over police violence has to do with hearing the voice of God.

Officially, this is part of our beatitudes sermon series, so keep these two in mind:

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God. 
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Pastoral Intern (from the University of Chicago Divinity School) Virginia White on Christianity's long obsession with bodies and ways that might be helpful for us to think the about our fleshy selves today.

Reading:

1 Corinthians 12:12-20

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 

A continuation on our series on the beatitudes:

Blessed are the meek, and Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Aren't these in contradiction? Which is it- are we to be meek and patient and gentle in the face of a world that has hurt us and will probably do so again, or are we to be honest about our dissatisfaction with so many things? Don't tell me the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Ok! It doesn't. It lies in being both to the utmost. That's where we can encounter the joy and full aliveness that comes from God knows where.

Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled. (5:6)

Co-pastors Neil and Tim begin a sermon series on the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes are some of the most memorable and quoted lines from the New Testament. They distill a vision of new ways of living. They only make sense if you can see within and beyond this reality into another one - an upside-down, outside-in, bizarro reality that Jesus of Nazareth not only imagined but saw as if he were rocking contact lenses with a prescription stolen from another dimension.

This week: 

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted. (5:4)

Co-pastor Tim Kim on why new years resolutions are GOOD and why each year is an opportunity for us to start over again.

Reading:

Mark 1:4-11

4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”9 

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”