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NSFC: Spirituality, Sex, and Longing in the Song of Songs 4/6 Rev. Dr. Katie Hays Mutuality is Sexy. Notably, the SoS is a duet between lovers – a woman and man, in this case. Moreover, the woman's voice is first and last, and it is she who sets the terms of their relationship in both love and sex. The lovers seek each other, wait for each other, ask for each other, pine for each other, in a way that demonstrates a startling parity between the genders for that time (and ours). Enthusiastic consent, indeed. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
NSFC: Spirituality, Sex, and Longing in the Song of Songs 3/6 Jillian Moran Come as You Are. The Corinthian Christians worried about what they needed to change, repair, or complete before they could be accepted into the fellowship of Christ. Paul responds that God's call comes before our lives are well in order, and perfection (or even having your shit together) is not a prerequisite. God invites messy people in messy circumstances into relationship first, and to let the Holy Spirit transform them when the time comes for it. Especially during Pride Month, this text reminds us that God's welcome is not only for people who conform to a certain standard, but for all anyone willing to answer when God calls. Jillian Moran is preaching.To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
NSFC: Spirituality, Sex, and Longing in the Song of Songs 2/6 Rev. Dr. Katie Hays The Earth is Sexy. The SoS overflows with imagery from the natural world – flora and fauna, sights and smells, an extravaganza (orgy?) of appreciation for a well-watered spring. The lovers meet and make out (make love?) outside; they compare each other's beauty to things they've seen in nature; nature stirs their desire for each other. Can this sexy appreciation of the earth lead us to a love that drives care, justice, and reclamation of our planetary home? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
NSFC: Spirituality, Sex, and Longing in the Song of Songs 1/6 Rev. Dr. Katie Hays Your Body is Sexy. We can't get around it in the SoS – bodies are beautiful, especially in the eyes of someone who knows and loves your body. And sex, too, as something (most of) our bodies want, is sexy and good and blessed and biblical. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
[Redacted]: Conspiring with Jesus 7/7 Rev. Dr. Katie Hays Contemplation of your baptism, past or future. Through our baptisms, we join the communion of the saints around the world, past and future. We are a link in a long chain of those who preserve the story, “the keepers of the horn” in Cormac McCarthy's phrase in No Country for Old Men. How wonderful to be part of something so old and so beautiful! To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Join us for Day1 Episode 4236 with Rev. Dr. Katie Hays, founder and lead evangelist of Galileo Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Her sermon, “Creator Creates Creation,” is based on Genesis 1:1-2:4a and explores the deep connection between God, creation, and all that God has made. For Trinity Sunday, Rev. Dr. Hays invites us to consider creation not as a science lesson, but as a faith claim: that God is invested in this good world and in us.
[Redacted]: Conspiring with Jesus 6/7 Rev. Dr. Katie Hays Presence, the best you can, at gatherings of the church. Jesus's assessment of the times he lived in was pretty grim: arrests and trials, intra-family strife, secrecy and murder. It's no less (or more) true now – discipleship is a dangerous business. This is no time to cocoon at home alone. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
[Redacted]: Conspiring with Jesus 5/7 Rev. Remi Shores Cultivation of spiritual gifts for the life of our church and community. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” Jesus says, and it feels true today, too. What does it take to be part of a DIY church? What's the difference in a consumer-client culture and citizenship in a community? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Participation in the church's discernment for our next steps together. There are so many decisions to be made when we are confronted with Jesus's presence and power. Who is he? Can he really do what he says he can do? Whose side is he on, anyway? And in contemporary life: what does he intend for us to do and be now, and next? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Extension of the church's welcome to friends, neighbors, strangers, and enemies. Two stories of invitation: the friends who bring a paralytic to Jesus's feet, and Jesus calling Matthew to come along. None of us comes to faith alone; our discipleship journey is the opposite of the U.S. American “self-made man [sic]”. Who are the helpers who are bringing us along, even now? And for whom are we the inviters? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Sharing of material resources to further the church's goals. Jesus has a way of commandeering resources for his own use – that boat, e.g., and those swine – probably because he has so little of his own (“Foxes have holes... but the Son of Man has nowhere...”). In what sense have our own resources been conscripted for his work? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Gracious receipt of care from the church family. One thing that Jesus recognizes in us is our need – our brokenness, unhealth, lack of resources. It's not our favorite thing to show him, or each other. But to conspire with the beloveds who gather in his name, the confession of need is essential. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Easter Sunday 2026To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Commissioning Rev. John Bowers as our Youngster Czar. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
The Rains Came Down and the Flood Came Up. In this final batch of sayings (which are less thematically unified than the previous chapters), Jesus offers what we could call “rabbinic advice” for how to condition one's spirit for harder times to come. Because it's going to rain soon, and tidal waves of sorrow will wipe out poorly built shelters. What does Present Me do to gift Future Me with the resilience she needs to weather the storm? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
How to Worship God, Not Money. When he smashes together the topics of religious practices (prayer, almsgiving, fasting) and financial practices (hoarding, worrying), Jesus reveals something big: our routinized religious piety runs the risk of disingenuousness, while we show by our output of emotional energy around money where our real worship is concentrated. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
A Crisis of Authority. Six times, Jesus speaks a formula that is intended to provoke a crisis in the listeners' hearts: “You have heard it said... But I say to you...” Does he mean to open up the conversation about calcified religious law, doubling down on personal moral agency while releasing us from the scrutiny of rigorous watchdogs? (Yes.) To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Blessed Are the Who Again? This is where Jesus pokes the bears of empire, of religion, of capitalism – of all the systems that compete to define “success” and assign power to the “winners.” For him to claim God's blessing on the losers – and furthermore to name them as the influencers, the “salt” and “light” for the rest of us – is a weird, wild flex. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
“No More a Stranger or a Guest, But Like a Child at Home.” God's cosmic plan of salvation can be described as “reconciliation” – the putting back together that which has been separated – people from people, people from God, people from the earth – all is re-tethered, interdependent, in the household of God. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
I Was a Stranger, and You Welcomed Me. The church has long understood itself as an organization that provides basic necessities like food and clothing to those “less fortunate.” Does the church likewise have an obligation to provide accompaniment and community to those who are lonely? What if that is the gospel for our disconnected, disconsolate age? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Welcoming Jesus. Jesus depended on the hospitality of others throughout his ministry – and really, throughout his life, from the Bethlehem barn to the borrowed tomb. The Bethany sisters were two of his closest friends, and they learned how to welcome him well. Can we extrapolate better and worse ways to welcome Jesus into our lives, perhaps by busying ourselves less, competing for his affection less, and quieting ourselves to listen more? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table. We use many metaphors for God, but what about God as Dinner Party Host Extraordinaire? Jesus returns to this metaphor in his parables: God prepares a table, a banquet, a party; guests are either ready or not to join the celebration. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Aliens Among Us. The language of “aliens” recurs many, many times through the Torah – compiled and written during the time of Israel's exile to Babylon, many generations after the escape from Egypt. While the imperially conquered Judaism of Jesus's day tended to keep Jewish identity front and center (so that Jesus himself never once ate with a Gentile!), there is a strong minority report in the text about God's care and concern for non-Israelite persons. What does this mean for our own reception of non-citizen immigrants? How does the contemporary church “love the alien as ourselves”? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Sodom, Gomorrah, and the ancient Near Eastern ethic of hospitality. The story of Sodom-n- Gomorrah's destruction deserves theological rehabilitation, so that the intra-biblical witness to those cities' sin can be heard. Ezekiel 16:49 and Jesus's sending of the apostles in Matthew 10 both point to Sodom's inhospitality (a failure to welcome and care for traveling strangers) as the reason for God's displeasure and punishment. Here we learn that God prioritizes our care for the stranger as the natural (God-given) way of human being. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Warning: “Nasty women” will save us. I have a “signature sermon” on this genealogy, where the 5 women are lifted up as examples of scandalous sexuality. These are our messiah's mother and grandmothers. We should have always understood that scandalous sexuality does not disqualify anyone from Jesus's family tree. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Warning: Jesus asks hard things of us. Joseph had a lot to lose, standing by Mary. But this is the thing about Jesus: he forces us to confront who we really are, what we really want; and what we're actually willing to give up to be that person, to want those things. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Warning: Jesus upsets the powers, and the powers are capable of anything, even hurting children. We know it's true; we have seen such violence in our own time. Gaza; Sudan; Ukraine. U.S. America, where basic nutrition programs are dangled over a fiery pit of congressional posturing. Texas, where health care for children – not only gender-affirming health care, but all health care for poor kids – is viewed as dangerously expensive. The text calls us to reaffirm our commitment to the children in our care. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Warning: Jesus widens our circles. And not everybody enjoys the widening of our circles. We like to imagine that we're on an elite, “insider” tier. What does it do to our sense of self-worth if everybody can get in? How do we reorient our estimation of self so that we love to share the privilege we've been granted? (This is a key difference between patriotism and nationalism, by the way. Patriotism wants to share the bounty of one's homeland; nationalism is stingy and protectionist.) To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Warning: Jesus changes literally everything. John the Baptist was suspicious of those who came for his baptism without any intention to let go old ways of being and take up a new life. All he could do was wash away the old, he said; but Jesus would burn it off. How does the bright-hot Light of the World laser away the accretions of life in this weird world? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Warning: God is not done with us yet. Jesus warns his followers to “stay awake,” because the current iteration of God's presence among them is not the last. As we contend with over- saturation of our spirits by bad news and constant policy alarms, how do we remain people who are watchful for God's presence, not in an “end of the world” kind of way but in an awareness of God in the everyday-ness of life? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Now You Are God's People. The author writes to people for whom God's merciful selection is new, and delicious (“if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good,” v. 3). And so he exhorts them to remember that theirs is not an individual project, but that their identity is collective. In partnership with Jesus, the “living stone,” they themselves become living stones, built together into a place of worship – not a building but a people. “Once you were not a people” – there was no community, no solidarity, no companionship for life's journey. But God's mercy includes the gift of community. Thanks be to God. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
God Is Love. The story goes: the elderly apostle John is asked to preach to the gathered crowd. He creaks to his feet and says, “Little children, love one another.” And he creaks back into his chair. “Brother John, don't you want to say more?” asks the host. “What else is there?” old John replies. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Evil gives Jesus a headache. The demonic forces Jesus exorcised held people captive, so his liberating work meant setting people free from those psycho-spiritual chains. But that liberative work makes privileged people suspicious. Plus, sometimes it doesn't exactly “work” – seven more troublemakers come in to replace what's been kicked out. It's tricky, fighting evil.To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Posturing gives Jesus a headache. The VRPs (Very Religious Persons) are doing their jobs: rigorously patrolling the boundaries of their religious community for its protection. But Jesus can see through their surface-level service, right into their self-righteous hearts. Finally, with Jesus, there aren't any secrets. What would it mean to live life so transparently with everyone?To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Blasphemy gives Jesus a headache. There are better and worse ways to talk about God's power and presence – and there's a way so much worse that we call it blasphemy. Jesus cautions us to be careful how we talk, how we articulate what God is and isn't doing in our world. It's not always easy to know; and part of what we do in church together is practice talking in the better ways we learn from scripture, song, and spoken word.To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Money gives Jesus a headache. What kind of dummy goes to Jesus to ask for a ruling on an inheritance? But it's a good thing someone did, because we got a lot of financial advice from Jesus from that dumb question. His main word to the wise: God provides, and if you think otherwise, you'll waste your life working and hoarding and imagining you've done it all yourself.To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
A Threefold Cord is Not Quickly Broken. The poet decries the (neoliberal capitalist?) project whereby we work and work and work, “no end to all [our] toil” (v. 7), as “vanity.” Then they move into a rhapsody about loving friendship, where people in loving relationships “have a good reward for their toil” (v. 9). Why do we need friendship to temper and redeem our work? And who is in that “threefold” cord? (Spoiler: it's God?) To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength. Ezra and Nehemiah worked together to rebuild Jerusalem following the Babylonian sacking of 586 BCE. Along the way they re-established Israel's religious identity, including this scene of reading re-discovered scripture, with interpreters helping the people understand. And when the people are overwhelmed by the beauty? challenge? of what they've heard, they're overcome with emotion, even weeping. But Nehemiah says the more appropriate response is joy – because it's not too late, because God is ready to receive us even when we're late. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
The Leader, in Diligence. How do congregations of people discern collectively who their leaders should be? What help does God give in that process, and how do we access that help? (Spoiler alert: Something, Something, Holy Spirit.)To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Last of All, Servant of All. God has always employed real live humans for the task of directing and caring for God's people. What kind of people are best suited for this work? Those who serve relentlessly, conscientiously, joyfully. We'll celebrate stories of church leaders who have sacrificed much for the sake of the “flock” they “shepherd.”To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
There Is Still a Vision. Habakkuk is a prophet with writer's block – he does not have a word from the Lord or from the distant battlefield, and that's making him antsy. He climbs the ramparts of Jerusalem's wall to scan the horizon, trusting that a runner will come. And instead, he gets a word from the Lord, kinda: “Wait, and listen, and trust that I've got something in mind, and it'll be good.” Tomás Halík has said that faith is trust + patience. How much patience have we got for God?To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
I Will Pour Out My Spirit on All Flesh. Joel's prophetic call to repentance urges Judah (the southern kingdom remaining after northern Israel's fall to Assyria) to repair their social structure and return to faithfulness. And assuming they will, God promises bloody revenge on the nation-states that have taken advantage of their weakness. The prophet imagines a restoration of trust between God and God's people, and an abundant outpouring of God's Spirit that douses all people, irrespective of human difference and hierarchies, with the ability to see what God sees and hope for what God hopes for. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
The Lord Bless You and Keep You. The Book of Numbers is filled with census data of the wandering Israelites, and a collection of laws for keeping social order among those thousands of people. One tribe, the Levites, and all its subfamilies, is designated to translate between God and the people as temple-servants (or priests). The Levites are given an all-time blessing to say over the people, which, God says, “puts [God's] name on them.” What does it mean to move in the world with God's name on you? To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
New Mercies, Every Morning. Lamentations is a collection of poetry composed and compiled shortly after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The poems name God as the punisher of all Israel's sin. This is a God who initiates massive, generational suffering and blames the victim for it; imperial armies are only God's instruments of torture. BUT in the middle of the Lamentations comes an ode to God's mercy and steadfast love. In the chiastic structure of this book, the reader is invited to believe that this counter-testimony is the ultimate reality, the revelation of God's true, life-affirming nature in a bleak season. Rev. Amber baker is preaching. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Love the Earth. Jesus's first parable (in Luke) is about growing food – the experience of planting grain in plowed earth, watching it grow, observing where it thrives and where it doesn't. Of course it's metaphorically about the reign of God – in whom it takes hold and in whom it doesn't. And it's meant to be at least a little bit funny; the farmer in the story isn't a very careful one. But the parable works because Jesus's audience was agrarian; they were close to the food production cycle. In the Information Age we have to be more deliberate to feel ourselves connected to the earth: go outside, “touch grass,” be stirred for a bird (Hopkins, “The Windhover”), grow something. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Be in Your Body. Jesus points out to his host that his body could have used care – his head, his hands, his feet were all in need of gentle attention. The uninvited woman who gave care to his body used her body for his sake, kneeling to wipe his feet with her hair. It's a sensual service for a sensual savior who cares for his fully embodied self. No less are we meant to appreciate and occupy our sensual, beautiful, exhausted bodies. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Speak Truth to Power. John the Baptist reappears in this gospel from a prison cell, conducting a conversation with Jesus via messengers. Jesus follows up with a deeply complimentary description of John's brave work, acknowledging the reality that the gospel of God's reign is not good news for everyone (i.e. those in power with so much to lose). To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Cross a Boundary. The centurion (Roman officer) should not care about his enslaved person. Jesus should not care about the centurion. But here they all are, caring about each other across the boundaries humans make. What if a deliberate demographic crossover (generational, class, language, and otherwise) could make more room for God to work in the synergy? Carissa Robinson is preaching.To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Be the Neighbor. How are we meant to comport ourselves in a world where our neighbors scorn our existence? When we are made to feel unwanted, even unsafe, by our fellow citizens? Jesus has an idea about that: love, blessing, non-judgment. This is likely a life-long practice, quite impossible to get quickly “correct” and move on. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Lament Honestly. The “Sermon on the Plain” is noticeably more grounded than Matthew's version. Jesus here attends to the material condition of his followers' lives, and dares to speak the truth about that. He says God knows it's true, and has in mind a reversal of fortune that will honor the truth of their daily experience of lack. Carisa Robinson is preaching.To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Or, email us the old-fashioned way: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch.org), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060