James Alison on Atonement

This essay was talked about in a recent sermon and the preacher promised it would be linked on this blog. So here it is: James Alison - Some Thoughts on Atonement.

Agree or disagree with him, it is a worthwhile read. Here is an excerpt to get you going:

The first thing that I ought to do, therefore, is to give you a brief account of what is traditionally called the substitutionary theory of atonement; of what we are up against; of what a certain crystallization of texts has thrown up that has kept us captive; and how we are going to try and move from a two-dimensional account to a three-dimensional account and see that actually all the creative lines in that story flow in an entirely different direction. So, here's the standard story, which I'm sure you've all heard before:

God created the universe, including humanity, and it was good. Then somehow or other humankind fell. This fall was a sin against God's infinite goodness and mercy and justice. So there was a problem. Humans could not off our own bat restore the order which had been disordered, let alone make up for having dishonoured God's infinite goodness. No finite making up could make up for an offence with infinite ramifications. God would have been perfectly within his rights to have destroyed the whole of humanity. But God was merciful as well as being just, so he pondered what to do to sort out the mess. Could he simply have let the matter lie in his infinite mercy? Well, maybe he would have liked to, but he was beholden to his infinite justice as well. Only an infinite payment would do; something that humans couldn't come up with; but God could. And yet the payment had to be from the human side, or else it wouldn't be a real payment for the outrage to be appeased. So God came up with the idea of sending his Son into the world as a human, so that his Son could pay the price as a human, which, since he was also God, would be infinite and thus would effect the necessary satisfaction. Thus the whole sorry saga could be brought to a convenient close. Those humans who agreed to cover over their sins by holding on to, or being covered by, the precious blood of the Saviour whom the Father has sacrificed to himself would be saved from their sins and given the Holy Spirit by which they would be able to behave according to the original order of creation. In this way, when they died, they at least would be able to inherit heaven, which had been the original plan all along, before the fall had mucked everything up. My guess is that you've heard something like that before. This is a familiar story.

Now, rather than make mockery of it, I want to suggest that the trouble with it is that it is far too little conservative. I want to put forward a much more conservative account. And the first way I want to be conservative is to suggest that the principle problem with this conventional account is that it is a theory, and atonement, in the first place, was a liturgy...

Dorian S. - Draw the Circle Wide - February 5, 2017

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.

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Readings:
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 have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

-1 Corinthians 13:1-3

The Ineffective Power of Baptism

*This week, our community will participate together in R&Bs first official baptism, which is a ritual that may be foreign to many. Part of our DNA is to inspect, dissect, and rebuild traditions, and in that spirit, here's a little primer on what baptism might mean:

The Ineffective Power of Baptism

Like a lot of religious stuff, baptism is odd. Therein lies the secret of its beauty and power. Baptism is done once and only once. It doesn’t in fact “do” anything. Unlike communion where we return over and over to practicing community with God and others, sprinkling or dunking someone in water is a sheer, unnecessary plunge into what is just straight up given to us.

If we get too worried about what it all “means,” we get it backwards. Then it becomes “I need to go through a ritual with this specific meaning in order to get a spiritual payoff.” But the whole point of baptism is that no action, no process, can make us worthy of love. The glaring ineffectiveness of the make-believe washing reminds us of the “here it is” quality of God’s love for us. It’s a subversion of an actual cleansing, which would imply that we need to be buffed up and polished before deserving total love.

The gathered community is also central to baptism. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are entering into a commitment with the person being baptized, to reflect in our own imperfect ways the same love we are coming to know and trust. We are for one another a real, radical, tangible, day-to-day reminder of God’s overflowing, surging, sustaining love.

Tim Kim - On the Election of a King - November 20, 2016

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).

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Readings:

From the Book of Jeremiah:
As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words, was alarmed, nor did they tear their garments. Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah song of Abdeel to arrest the secretary Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But the Lord hid them.

From Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates:
You must resist the common urge toward the comforting narrative of divine law, toward fairy tales that imply some irrepressible justice. The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine.

From Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
There is a very real danger of our drifting into an attitude of contempt for humanity. We know quite well that we have no right to do so, and that it would lead us into the most sterile relation to our fellow-human beings. The following thoughts may keep us from such a temptation. It means that we at once fall into the worst blunders of our opponents. The one who despises another will never be able to make anything of him. Nothing that we despise in the other person is entirely absent from ourselves. We often expect from others more than we are willing to do ourselves. Why have we hitherto thought so intemperately about people and their frailty and temptability? We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. The only profitable relationship to others - and especially to those weaker - is one of love, and that means the will to hold fellowship with them. God did not despise humanity, but became human for humanity’s sake.

Keri Anderson - The Stakes of Storytelling - Nov 3, 2016

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!). 

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Readings:

The Story of Jonah (look it up!)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” 
declares the Lord. 
“Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
Plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, 
and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you.” -Jeremiah 29:1-14

i found god in
myself
and i loved
her
i loved her
fiercely. - Ntozake Shange

Tim Kim - Distraction and Disconnect - October 9, 2016

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. 

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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, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." 2 Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord." 6 They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. 7 The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!' " 9 The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." 11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, "It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, "I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.' " 14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Neil Ellingson - Anxious People, Anxious God - October 2, 2016

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. 

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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 of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

13:1 The Lord said to Moses: 2 Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine. 3 Moses said to the people, "Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the Lord brought you out from there by strength of hand; no leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. 5 When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this observance in this month. 6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to the Lord. 7Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen in your possession, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory. 8 You shall tell your child on that day, "It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

Set List October 2, 2016

What We Sang:

Moses Take Your Shoes Off (Conrad Cook)

He Was a Friend of Mine (Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan)

Ya Hey (Vampire Weekend as covered by Phosphorescent) 

I'll Be Glad (Bonnie Prince Billy)

I Saw the Light (Hank Williams)

The Meaning of Make Believe (Why Religion Doesn't Have to be "Real")

Check out this piece, published in Religion Dispatches, by Root and Branch co-founder, Neil Ellingson. 

"A lot happened to get me to the point of wanting to start a church, and at this point I’m in pretty deep as far as Christianity is concerned. However, something I’ve found hard to admit is that the real, physical space of the Christian church—which has become important and life-changing for me—is nonetheless full of people, stories and symbols I can still have a hard time seeing as real. I have a hunch I’m not the only one for whom this is the case."

Neil Ellingson - What’s Left When Things Leave - August 7, 2016

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.
 
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Readings:
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 that same youth, with ill health, with accident, with the loss of loved ones who do not share our untouchable powers; powers eventually and most emphatically given up, as we approach our last breath. The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance, our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of loss, robustly and fully, or conversely, as misers and complainers, reluctant, and fearful, always at the gates of existence, but never bravely and completely attempting to enter, never wanting to risk ourselves, never walking fully through the door.

Luke 12:32-40 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

39 “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

There Are Angels Hovering 'round

Tim Kim - How Long? - July 10, 2016

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 "judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked."  We must ask God in these moments, "How long can this go on?" And in Psalm 82, God asks of these wicked gods, "How long will you judge unjustly?" Can these questions exist together?

Tim is a co-founder of Root and Branch Church.

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Set List on July 3, 2016

What We Sang:

Glory Glory (Mississippi John Hurt Version)

Holy Holy Holy

The Man in Me (Bob Dylan)

Summertime (Bob Dylan)

I've Got a Good Feeling (Spiritual Harmonizers of Little Rock, AK)

Unfortunately there is not embeddable thing to post, but look it up if you have Spotify!

Neil Ellingson - Make Some Joyful Noise - July 3, 2016

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 selfish to want to be joyful, in fact, it's selfish to want anything less.
The source of true joy is beyond this world, but joy can be experienced here and now.

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Chris Hanley - Learning to Play - June 26, 2016

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 mountain" isn't a metaphor for the love and safety of eternity but for today? WHAT IF?!

Chris Hanley is a graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School, a soon-to-be minister, a longtime RnB attendee, and an all around cool dude.

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Caroline Wooten - Humility + Audacity - June 5, 2016

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. 

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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 to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Neil Ellingson - What is the Trinity - May 22, 2016

Neil Ellingson waxes poetic on the trinity: what is it? why should we care? does it matter anymore? and so on.

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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 my cry is to all that live.
O simple ones, learn prudence;
    acquire intelligence, you who lack it.
Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right;
for my mouth will utter truth;
    wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are righteous;
    there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
They are all straight to one who understands
    and right to those who find knowledge.
Take my instruction instead of silver,
    and knowledge rather than choice gold;
for wisdom is better than jewels,
    and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
I, wisdom, live with prudence,
    and I attain knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
    and perverted speech I hate.
I have good advice and sound wisdom;
    I have insight, I have strength.
By me kings reign,
    and rulers decree what is just;
by me rulers rule,
    and nobles, all who govern rightly.
I love those who love me,
    and those who seek me diligently find me.
Riches and honor are with me,
    enduring wealth and prosperity.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
    and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness,
    along the paths of justice,
endowing with wealth those who love me,
    and filling their treasuries.
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
    the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up,
    at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
    when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
    before the hills, I was brought forth—
when he had not yet made earth and fields,
    or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
    when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
    when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
    so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
    then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
    rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
    and delighting in the human race.

Set List on June 5th, 2016

What We Sang:

God is not a White Man (Gungor)

Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson)

Jesus Etc. (Wilco)

Eyes to the Wind (The War on Drugs)

Allah Allah Allah (Mewithoutyou)

Set List for May 15, 2016

What we sang:

I've Got a Feeling Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Spiritual)

I Saw the Light (Hank Williams)

Holy Ghost (Low)

The Sun Shine Down on Me (Bonnie Prince Billy)

The Storm is Passing Over

Virginia White - Fire for the Weary - May 15, 2016

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 a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability (from the book of Acts, Chapter 2).  

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