Root + Branch Church

Did God create the world because God was lonely? By definition, God (omnipotent, omnipresent, yada yada yada) couldn't be lonely right? That would mean that God lacked something. But heresy aside, the image of God as little child with no one to play with, using a child-like imagination to make platypus' and big ass whales (as the story goes) is a compelling one. Because a kid's imagination, weird and stubborn as it tends to be, is powerful and boundless. Without seeing life and relationships as this irresistible thing that contains a multitude of possibilities that sparks such a weird and stubborn desire that we are willing to reach out and give life to stuff, then loneliness wouldn't be a thing at all.

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 feed my soul” kind of thing. It depicts something quite literal. Eating together is a ritual of the Root and Branch community. We’ve always done it. We’ve done it many many many times. We’ll keep doing. Which begs the question: Why? What do such ritual things have to do with our idea of what is true, our beliefs, our sense of God? When we eat bread does it mean we believe? Or do we believe because we eat bread?

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 still king. What are we to do when the people who are supposed to be on our side, to have our interests at heart, let us down? When they might even be outright evil? 

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 from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

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 because it doesn’t fit our experience or understanding of how things go. People live, they die, and then their bodies decompose, eventually even all memory of them wisps away after a few generations. That’s all we know, anything else is wishful thinking, land of make believe, childish illusion.

OR IS IT??????

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

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

“The Doer of Good” by Oscar Wilde