Praying in a Crowded House 2/6

Praying to Remember and Hope. We have inherited our ancestors’ experiences of God’s presence and power, and one form of prayer is a recitation of God’s faithfulness in the past. Our communal memories are not “proof,” exactly; but they are testimony of what God has already done as fuel for our hope in what God will do.

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Praying in a Crowded House 1/6

Praying to Awaken. Sometimes our eyes are wide open to notice the presence and power of God in this beloved world (and sometimes they’re not). There is a way of prayer that simply lets God know that we get it, and we appreciate it, and are wowed by it. And by praying our awakening, we become more and more attuned to the world, and thus have more content for these awakening prayers…it’s a virtuous cycle.

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Emergence 7/7

What are you afraid of? Herod is “frightened” (2:3) of Jesus’s identity, and thus imagines violence as a solution, the elimination of Jesus’s presence from his world. But what God has ordained cannot be erased. Think of the attempts at “erasure” of LGBTQ+ folx – book-banning, prohibiting medical care, threats to roll back marriage equality, and more. These will not work; even if violence ensues, God’s purposes will not be thwarted.

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Emergence 6/7

We see it again and again in scripture: those who greet God’s presence in the world with open-minded curiosity are rewarded for their inquiry. The astrologers from the east are not converted to Christianity; they return home with no expectation that their “homage” will become religious devotion. Thus they are integral to our understanding of Jesus’s identity as a cosmic savior beyond the bounds of Christian adherence.

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Emergence 5/7

The birth of Jesus takes place in a framework that requires Joseph to rethink his status as a devout, law-keeping, religionist. From the beginning, in other words, Jesus’s arrival has pressed against religious convention, requiring us to be imaginative, humble, courageous, and open in order to be faithful.

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Emergency 4/7

The prerequisite is hospitality. There is a posture toward neighbors that is tight-fisted and hard-hearted, everyone minding their own business…and then there’s the posture of open-door welcome. The latter is imperative for the receipt of the gospel, apparently. Where do we seek, find, and share that level of welcome?

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Emergence 3/7

John and the question of Jesus’s identity: who will he be? John imagines the coming messiah as a fiery reformer, but it’s a dove (not a raptor) that lights on Jesus for God’s own designation. We’ll contemplate his baptism, and our own, and think about how baptism changes people into the people God knows them to be.

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Emergence 2/7

The women in the genealogy: Jesus is made of them. Katie’s signature sermon about the scandalous women among Jesus’s ancestors, and how it informs our understanding of his identity to know who they are.

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Emergence 1/7

Bruised reeds, smoldering wicks. The prophets foretold the coming of God’s agent into the world to reveal God’s plan for humanity – and God, who could have sent an avenging army, or a demolition crew, sent instead a quiet and even secretive emissary. What does it say about our own imperative to be heard and seen, that Jesus smallened himself to match the prophecy of Isaiah’s quiet servant?

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Four Questions and a Funeral 4/4

The question about salvation: who’s in, who’s out. What is the scope of Jesus’s salvific work? What commitments are required from anyone who wants “in”? What about the thief who doesn’t ask Jesus for anything, but only ridicules him? How do I know for sure that I’m saved?

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Four Questions and a Funeral 3/4

The question about the end of the world as we know it. What is the destiny of planet earth? When will *it* happen, whatever *it* is? How are we meant to live with the uncertainty?

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Four Questions and a Funeral 2/4

The question about what happens when we die. Don’t we all wish we knew? Is there something, or nothing? Will we be ourselves, with all our experiences and thoughts from before, or not? What is *personal* about the afterlife, if there is one? The question about marriage is really an existential one: who am I, and who will I be, in the heart 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 PayPal, or just send a check to 6563 Teague Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76140.

Four Questions and a Funeral 1/4

The question about our life as citizens. If God’s reign competes with the reign of empire, where does our loyalty lie, and how are we meant to function as citizens in God’s reign? “Paying taxes” is one way to say, “But we live here; we have to get alone here; in what sense do we belong here?” This question is magnified in our context, as Christian nationalism is ascendant and we’re confused about how/whether to be patriotic, how/whether to try to influence the government, how/whether to participate in capitalism. How do we live *here* if God’s reign is *elsewhere*, metaphorically speaking?

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 PayPal, or just send a check to 6563 Teague Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76140.

Tell it Slant: Parables in Luke’s Gospel 6/6

Chronic naivete with tragic results. Jesus is now in the final days of his life. He has entered Jerusalem, and cleansed the temple. The VRPs are looking for a final solution. Luke has just a couple chapters of last-minute sayings and stories from Jesus, and then he will be betrayed and crucified. In that context, he tells this parable, which seems thematically similar to the previous one: it concerns a wealthy ruler and his enslaved persons. But in this one, the master is not the villain, rather his tenants are. Why does the landlord continue sending his enslaved persons to the tenants? Why does he think they will behave any differently than they always have? In what way is this parable an answer to the VRPs’ question of Jesus’ authority? And in what way does it introduce how Jesus’ life is about to end?

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Tell it Slant: Parables in Luke’s Gospel 5/6

A nasty nobleman and those he enslaves. This is one of the ones where I struggle the most not to seek one-for-one equivalencies. Does the nobleman = God? (I hope not!) Do the slaves = us? What are the pounds? In Luke, “pound” is a translation of “mina,” about three months’ wages. Other gospels have a similar story with “talents,” or more than fifteen years’ wages. Some people have used an English pun with “talents,” understanding them as our gifts and, well, talents. What will we do with what God has given us? But Luke’s version also includes some violence. This nobleman is not well liked, and he slaughters those who don’t want to be his subjects. Luke says he told this parable “because he was near Jerusalem”—indeed, chronologically and geographically, we are very close to the start of Passion Week in this passage. The very next verse concerns his triumphal entry. What does this parable mean, in that context?

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 PayPal, or just send a check to 6563 Teague Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76140.

Tell it Slant: Parables in Luke’s Gospel 4/6

Persistence over performance. I’m ready to give this widow a standing ovation. You? One of the tenets of Critical Race Theory is “interest convergence,” the idea that laws do not change because of the kindness of lawmaker’s hearts. They change because the interests of the lawmakers or the powerful converge with the interests of justice advocates. “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,” he says, “this widow is on my everlasting nerve.” And then we have the pray-ers. Why do you think this parable immediately follows the previous one? What common themes do you see?

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Tell it Slant: Parables in Luke’s Gospel 3/6

Prophets over ghosts. In what way is this parable a response to the ridicule of the VRPs? Luke tells us they were “lovers of money” (hence their ridicule in response to the previous parable about the dishonest manager). Jesus responds to their ridicule with a series of seemingly disjointed observations. John (the Baptizer) ushered in a new era, or good news over law. But the law is still active, also. And, this weird comment about remarriage. And then, the rich man and Lazarus. What is the train of thought here? The parable is about riches, surely, which tracks with Luke’s aside (“who were lovers of money”), but how does it track with any of the rest of this? And what do you make of Abraham’s assertion that if Lazarus’s family didn’t believe the prophets, they also won’t believe “even it someone rises from the dead”? Who would you believe, a prophet or a ghost?

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 PayPal, or just send a check to 6563 Teague Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76140.

Tell it Slant: Parables in Luke’s Gospel 2/6

Too weak to dig, too proud to beg. Once again, Jesus tells this story like the manager’s response is rational. Is it? What about that line in v. 8, “the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” What does that mean? Is that true today, for this generation? And then the turn in vv. 10-11. “Whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” And so, it follows that we should be faithful with dishonest wealth? Not that we should be faithful and honest? Huh?

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 PayPal, or just send a check to 6563 Teague Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76140.

Tell it Slant: Parables in Luke’s Gospel 1/6

Finding shit you had lost. Jesus tells these stories like they make perfect sense. “Which one of you…does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness?” But is that really the obvious thing to do? What would you do, if you were a shepherd? Or a teacher, maybe, with 99 (or let’s say 19) kids? Leave them in the wilderness? What about the other stories, do the responses of the characters make sense to you? Is that what you would do? Does it seem like the obvious course of action, or is it surprising? The RCL separates the Prodigal Son story from the sheep and coins parables. Why do you think Luke puts them together? Are they related? How?

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 PayPal, or just send a check to 6563 Teague Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76140.

Epaphras. Onesimus. Nympha. Paul. 8/8

A collection of co-conspirators, a cloud of witnesses, the great congregation. How many workers, how many witnesses, how many helpers, how many heads-of-household does it take to make a church? Lots. How much can we learn from these names about the way the early church functioned, and the way ours could, too? Lots.

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 PayPal, or just send a check to 6563 Teague Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76140.