Roots Church Sermon Podcast

In With You in the Valleys, we explored the spiritual myth that God is found only in strength, success, and certainty. So much of modern faith culture subtly teaches us to chase the mountaintop—to pray harder, perform better, and present a polished testimony. But what if God is especially present in the valleys? Through story,…

In this message from our Non-Anxious Misfit series, “Salt, Light, and Shalom,” we reflect on Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13–16: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” Notice—Jesus doesn’t say try to be salt or work hard to become light. He says you are. This sermon invites us…

In the final message of the Revelation: Unveiling Reality teaching series, Pastors T. C. & Osheta combined for a homily that invites dialogue. Drawing upon the vision of chapter 21, of a new heaven and new earth, Pastors T. C. & Osheta point to God’s dream for a world characterized by shalom: a positive peace,…

This sermon explores the theme of judgment in Revelation through the image of a controlled prairie burn—fire that looks destructive but actually restores life. Revelation’s vivid judgments (i.e. the seals, trumpets, and bowls, etc.) unmask the “beastly” systems of domination, violence, and exploitation that harm God’s creation and God’s people. Rather than depicting divine rage,…

In this sermon, we explore how John’s visions of beasts, dragons, and Babylon aren’t predictions of the world’s end, but prophetic unveilings of empire’s true nature—then and now. Revelation exposes the seductive power of political and religious systems that disguise domination as righteousness and violence as peace. Drawing insight from voices like Michael J. Gorman,…

In this message, Pastor Osheta shares personally and vulnerably about her own grief and skillfully weaves together the thrown room scene from Revelation chapter 5 with a positive vision for living with ambiguous grief and loss. It’s a message of encouragement and hope amidst dark times.

In a world shaken by headlines of political violence, our fall teaching series turns to the book of Revelation—not as a codebook for predicting the end of the world, but as a vision of Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness. Revelation was written to embattled churches under Roman rule, calling them to see beyond fear and…

In this message, Pastor T. C. explores the way Jesus enters Jerusalem on the first “Palm Sunday.” Rather than being a “triumphal entry,” as it is sometimes known, it was instead a carefully-planned protest, a parody of imperial power, and an embodiment of peace.

In this powerful and deeply personal sermon, we explore the true meaning of discipleship through the lens of one man’s journey from gang life to following Jesus. Using Mark’s Gospel and insights from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, this message challenges us to leave behind false securities, embrace intimacy with Christ, and take up…

Interview with Bonhoeffer Scholar, Dr. Reggie Williams This video interview is the kick-off of our new teaching series on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic, The Cost of Discipleship. Dr. Reggie Williams is Associate Professor of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, with research interests in: Black Theology, African American Studies, Black Arts, The Harlem Renaissance, Dietrich Bonhoeffer…

In this sermon, Pastor T. C. Moore teaches on Matthew chapter 7 in the penultimate message in the “Center of Gravity” series. He organizes the chapter into four parts: vv.1–6 “See Clearly”; vv.7–14 “Trust Deeply”; vv.15–23: “Discern Wisely”; vv.24–29 “Build Courageously.”

In this sermon, Pastor T. C. Moore explores the contrasting motivations of fear-based obedience and love-based obedience, using the Sermon on the Mount as a lens to understand Jesus’s teachings. The message begins with a reflection on old Fundamentalist political cartoons, which often used fear to enforce rigid moral behaviors. This serves as an entry…

This week’s Advent message wrestles with the theme of peace—not as an escape from reality but as a profound and embodied hope amid life’s struggles. The sermon critiques “spiritual bypassing,” a harmful practice where spiritual truths are used to suppress or dismiss valid emotions like grief, anger, or fear. This bypassing denies the real pain…

This week’s sermon continued our exploration of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, focusing on the metaphor of being the “light of the world” and a “city on a hill” (Matthew 5:14). Pastor highlighted the historical appropriation of this metaphor by figures like John Winthrop and U.S. presidents, including Reagan and JFK, to frame America as…

In this message, Pastor T. C. introduces the teaching series, ICON: Portals into the Heart of Jesus by exploring how contemplation of Jesus through contemplative practices like Visio Divina restore the image of God in us. As II Corinthians 3:17–18 says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,…

In this message, Pastor T. C. homes in on the theme of humility in the Magnificat using Mary as an example and draws upon insights from Dr. Dennis Edwards’ new book Humility Illuminated.

Pastor Osheta kicks off the “Making Room in Advent” series with a message entitled “Making Room for Silence.”

The third Path Point of PAX’s Scripture StoryArc is Material: “Jesus is the key to understanding Scripture.” In this message, Pastor T. C. contrasts a Jesus-centered approach to Scripture to a “Flat Bible” approach. As disciples of Jesus, we should learn how to read Scripture the way Jesus did, through: 1. The Jesus Lens; 2.…

What we think the Bible says leads us to develop deeply-held beliefs and those deeply-held beliefs are often the basis for relationships, families, vocation, and politics. So, it’s important that what we think the Bible says, is actually true. The second Path Point in PAX’s Scripture StoryArc: Myth. The Myth statement is: “The Bible says…

In this message, Pastor T. C. continues Living Word series with the “Manifesto” of PAX’s Scripture StoryArc: We are given Scripture as a divine instrument to become like Jesus. 2 Tim 3:15-16 is a common text used to describe the role of the scriptures. What can this text (in addition to 2 Peter 3:16) tell…

In this message, Pastor T. C. kicks off the Living Word series by introducing the “Manifesto” of PAX’s Scripture StoryArc: We are given Scripture as a divine instrument to become like Jesus. In the Gospel of John, John the Baptizer is spoken of as testifying to Jesus in much the same way the Scriptures testify…

In this message, Pastor T. C. kicks off a new teaching series on Stewardship.

In this message, Pastor T. C. kicks off an Eastertide teaching series on the book of First Peter.

In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the episode in Jesus’s story when he is warned that Herod wants to kill him but he is defiant, unflappable. But it’s what Jesus says next that has echoed through history. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and longs to gather its children to himself like a mother hen.

In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the problematic concept of “missions” and reframes it as God’s dream for the world to restore Shalom. God tells Israel to “seek the peace of the city” in Jeremiah 29—and that city was Babylon. What if the mission Jesus sends his disciples on was never about “conversion” but about…

In this message, Pastor Osheta teaches on what Moravian history has to teach us about unity. We are united in our picture of God in Christ; united in our commitments to remembering our journey of faith, to being curious about the ‘other’, and to coming together around the Lord’s Table.

In this message, Pastor Osheta preaches on the “Journey of Faith” from the story of Jesus calming the storm.

In this message, Pastor T. C. homes in on another area of overlap between Roots and the Moravian Church: a Jesus-centered reading of the Bible.

In this sermon, Pastor T. C. teaches on the kind of community God is forming in Christ—a community of misfits. Jesus didn’t gather the best and brightest, he gathered the overlooked and underestimated. Jesus did this to demonstrate the nearness of God’s Kingdom to all, not just the religious elite. In fact, God’s election has…

Lament is a neglected aspect of Christian worship in the Western world and perhaps especially in the United States. In troubled times when it’s clear the world is not as it should be—God’s dream of shalom is disrupted—God’s people cry out to God on behalf of the vulnerable, the abused, the marginalized. Lament is an…

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There he confronts the devil and resists three temptations. These three temptations aren’t just instructive for us personally, they also describe perennial temptations the church faces in relationship to society. They are: 1. Empire Economics; 2. Idolatrous Nationalism; and 3.…

Lent is a season of the Christian calendar in which we are once again invited to be formed by the pattern of Jesus’s life. In this series we will not only explore the personal application of Lenten practice, but also the corporate application. A framing passage for this series is from Isaiah 58: Shout it…

In this message, Pastor T. C. shares the ways he has had to rethink “heaven” and “hell,” particularly where traditional views have not lined up with what the Bible actually teaches.

“Church” might be the subject that evokes the most emotions for those “deconstructing/reconstructing.” Church is where the proverbial rubber meets the road when it comes to our faith. It’s also where flawed human beings steward the sacred mysteries of the faith. Church is the space where God’s Spirit inhabits our relationships in an unique way,…

In this message, Pastor Osheta Moore guides us through aspects of the deconstruction journey she’s been on as it relates to her experience and beliefs about the Holy Spirit. In a similar way to how the prophet Elijah looked for God to show up in overt manifestations of power, but God showed up in a…

What is the Bible? How did we get it? How are we supposed to interpret it? How do we understand the Bible and its role in our spiritual formation? In this sermon, Pastor Der Lor explores how we can discover the Jesus Way in our understanding of Scripture after deconstruction.

As we continue in our current teaching series, Emily Morrison delivers this sermon on Faith. In John chapter 6, the crowds that followed Jesus had many questions for him. In fact, Jesus’s disciples often doubted. Ultimately, Jesus didn’t explain the faith, he asked people to believe in him, to trust him. Emily shows us that…

Jesus compared his Way to a wise person building their home on a rock. However, there are many Christian belief systems and structures that have been built on top of the Jesus Way which should be rightfully deconstructed—they are foundations of sinking sand. Belief systems and structures that are built on fear, cultural assimilation, and…

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value,…

During the season of Christmastide, we give each other gifts in celebration of the greatest gift ever given to the world: Jesus. The advent of Jesus into the world is the greatest demonstration of God’s grace. However, we often misunderstand God’s grace when we think of it as a ‘one-way, unilateral donation.’ As we see…

The theme of Advent week 3 in the Making Christmas Meaningful Again (Advent Conspiracy) series is Give More. This sermon is by Pastor Der Lor.

What does it look like to make Christmas meaningful again? How do we resist the powerful forces of consumerism and consumption? In week two of Advent, Emily Morrison explores the theme of “Spend Less” with a sermon from I Timothy 6.

This Advent, Roots is joining with hundreds of other congregations in conspiring against consumerism in our Christmas celebrations. The first theme of Advent Conspiracy is “Worship Fully.” In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the way we are formed by embodied practices. The apostle Paul teaches us to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices” to…