Root + Branch Church

We're spending sometime with this Jesus as bread, eat and drink, weird cannibalistic language thing: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” Before we jump too quickly into the realm of metaphor, the word used here for “eat” is a Greek word that means something like to gnaw, crunch, and chew. This isn’t some sort of “Jesus please fee...

A man in a position of immense power seriously screws up. He lies and connives to cover his ass. His misdeeds cast a pall over his entire administration. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT KING DAVID ;). The same one credited with writing the Psalms. The one typically remembered as the godly man who led Israel through its glory days. But he's just violated a married woman, ordered her husband’s murder, and he’s...

How does one say goodbye well? Co-founder Neil Ellingson gives his farewell sermon (July 15, 2018). Reading: Revelation 21:1-7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice...

On Easter we are asked to focus our attention on something that is hard to look at. Not because it is disturbing or painful (that would be Good Friday when we remember Jesus’ brutal crucifixion, and the brutality of oppression and death in our lives and our world); quite the opposite, because what we’re asked to look at on Easter is too good to be true. We can’t fix our gaze on the resurrection be...

Part 5 in the Root and Branch Manyfesto: Creativity. A conversation on a God who gives permission, the conditions for creativity, and the revelation of Palm Sunday. 

We are in the midst a series of talks and conversations around the core values and beliefs at Root and Branch. Our third topic of the series: Social/World Transformation. Co-pastor Tim on how Christianity's radical claim can change us all. 

As the year begins, we are starting a series of talks and conversations around the core values and beliefs at Root and Branch. Our second topic of the series: Personal Transformation. Co-pastor Neil on how our true selves might take shape.

As the year begins, we are starting a series of talks and conversations around the core values and beliefs at Root and Branch. We begin here with the question: What does community look like at Root and Branch? Tim shares reflections on how getting to know one another is the first step in getting to know God.  Reading: Mark 1:14-20 1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaimin...

Root and Branch community member, Liz Bajema, shares thoughts on September's theme: THE FALLLL. What is the point of doing good things? Most of the reasons we have for doing good are selfish, and much of the good we do seems to lead to more problems. The very state of reality would often suggest that it isn't really worth it. So what then?  Readings: Numbers 21:4b-9 21:4b But the people became imp...

Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son” Abe says, “Man, you must be putting me on” God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?” God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but The next time you see me coming you better run” Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killing done?” God says, “Out on Highway 61” -from Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan The first conversation on series about GOD: The story of God asking A...

A lot of people think revelation means hitting the pause button on the natural ordinary functioning of things as a miraculous event appearing out of nowhere like a godly pop-up ad. BUT what if revelation was a surprising, life-changing uncovering of a pattern, purpose, perhaps even personality hiding from our everyday anxious ways of looking at the ordinary? Revelation then becomes a lens showing...

Co-pastor Keri Anderson's final sermon to the Root and Branch community on Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost Sunday marks the story in which the Holy Spirit (in wind and fire) was bestowed upon Jesus' disciples, and Keri breathes some fire on us about the feminine Spirit of God. Readings: A reading from the Book of Proverbs about the Feminine Wisdom of God: God created me at the beginning of creation,  ...

Easter 2017. A sermon on truth in a "post-truth" America. What does it mean to be a witness to the resurrection, to give testimony to what has taken place? Sometimes you gotta go see for yourself.  Readings: From the Gospel according to John 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...

Longtime Root and Brancher, Dorian, speaks on love, empathy, people that drive you crazy, and how we might do more than clang a cymbal while creating an inclusive world. He drew a circle that shut me out-- Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in! -Outwitted by Edwin Markham 1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and h...

Co-pastor Tim asks whether or not there is such a thing as a "Christian" response to the election of Donald Trump and compares our current political climate to everything from the first king of Israel to Nazi Germany (but like, without trying to be all sensationalizing). Readings: From the Book of Jeremiah: As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw...

Keri talks about the story of Jonah (dude in who ends up in the belly of a whale) and tries to figure out where the @#$%^&*() God is in all of that. She also talks about what we might do with Bible stories that portray God as the oppressor and whether God has a plan for our lives (easy enough!).  Readings: The Story of Jonah (look it up!) “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “...

Tim talks about the Exodus story where the Israelites, freshly freed from the bondages of slavery, create an idol to worship, which makes God upset. Somewhere in this is something to be said about waiting and distraction and technology.  Exodus 32:1-14 1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us...

Neil talks about the story of the Israelites escape from Egypt, a story that depicts liberation from bondage as well as a God who seems pretty brutal.  Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8 12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth o...

Neil talks about the reality of loss and how some strange words and ideas from Jesus might help us think about what God has given us. From "Vulnerability" by David White To have a temporary, isolated sense of power over all events and circumstances, is one of the privileges and the prime conceits of being human and especially of being youthfully human, but a privilege that must be surrendered with...

How long will this go on? This is a question that I am sure many are shouting to God after the brutal murders we have seen these past weeks and months and years, and the volume grows and grows with each name added to the list of black lives that bear witness to a systematic and government sanctioned reality of racism, violence, and exploitation. In Psalm 82, God prepares to indict the gods that "j...

What do we all want, deep deep down? Love? Meaning? Purpose?  The answer is already implied in the question: if we WANT anything, it's the fulfillment of want, of desire. The word for this is joy. It's different from happiness. You've probably experienced it, even if you don't remember. None of the central theological concepts in Christianity make sense without an understanding of joy. It's not se...

Contrary to popular belief (i.e., Christianity), perhaps "and a little child shall lead them" isn’t just about a baby born next to a cow who grows up to inspire both the awesome and awesomely awful. What if it also has something to do with the ability to play like we used to? What if this child is to remind us to enjoy the useful uselessness that makes life worth living? What if God's "holy mounta...

Caroline Wooten shares stories related to the seemingly antithetical ideas of humility and audacity. Topics include Monica Lewinsky, cars that look like boots, and how the apostle Paul is often annoying but right.  Reading: 2 Corinthians 4 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or...

Neil Ellingson waxes poetic on the trinity: what is it? why should we care? does it matter anymore? and so on. Reading:  Proverbs 8 Does not wisdom call,     and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way,     at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town,     at the entrance of the portals she cries out: “To you, O people, I call,     and...

Pastoral Intern, Virginia White preaches on spirit that comes for the weary, the scared, the uninspired, the burned out.  Pentecost Sunday: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and...