Galileo Church

We seek and shelter spiritual refugees, rally health for all who come, and fortify every tender soul with the strength to follow Jesus into a life of world-changing service.

5860 I-20 service road Fort Worth, TX 76119 USA

(682) 760-1274

OUR MISSIONAL PRIORITIES:

1. We do justice for LGBTQ+ humans, and support the people who love them.

2. We do kindness for people with mental illness and in emotional distress, and celebrate neurodiversity.

3. We do beauty for our God-Who-Is-Beautiful.

4. We do real relationship, no bullshit, ever.

5. We do whatever it takes to share this good news with the world God still loves.

Trying to find us IRL?
Mail here: P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Worship here: 5 pm CT Sundays; 5860 I-20 service road, Fort Worth 76119

Trying to find our Sunday worship livestream?
click here!

on the trail of the messiah

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We're picking up the Gospel of Mark where we left off before Lent—Jesus is on the trail, and we’re following him.

Plundering the strong man’s house. Jesus tells a little parable about himself as “the stronger man” – the one who ties up the strong man so his house can be plundered. Indeed, Jesus’ strength is growing as his movement grows. So we are invited to see Jesus as our champion, rescuing us from the clutches of… Satan?... or whatever has got you tied up like Sweet Nell on the railroad tracks. Jesus has come to bind the one, unbind the rest. And he’s sending others out to do that unbinding work, too. Mark 3:7-30.

Jesus does not have “family values.” It’s so important for us not to conflate our understanding of what makes a good “family” with Jesus’ own understanding of family. He is really not a very “good son” in the traditional sense of taking care of his mother and revering her. (I have a feeling he never sent a Mother’s Day card.) But he looks around at his followers and friends and says, “These – you – are my family.” How far are we willing to go with that? Are we family for each other? To what degree? Mark 3:31-35.

Jesus tells riddles; Jesus is a riddle. We’ve read all these parables before – last year from Matthew – but it bears repeating that Jesus’ main mode of teaching is in riddles that spin off surpluses of meaning. It will be good to revisit the parabolic mode for a Sunday and consider the God whose kingdom remains hidden even as it’s being disclosed. God peeking around the corner, then hiding again… Mark 4:1-34.

Jesus the disruptor. Jesus will interrupt a storm if it is frightening his friends. Jesus will vanquish the demons that torment a man. Jesus will disrupt the economy by sending a herd of livestock into the sea. (That’s when they “report” him, v. 16! When he messes with their livelihood!) He’s not interested in status quo, going with the flow. He’s a disruptor. Mark 4:35–5:20.

Jesus, Jairus, Jairus’s daughter, and the bleeding woman. These stories are told as an inclusio – two stories sandwiched together to show us what we might not have seen otherwise. Jairus and the woman form such an interesting contrast. Note: Jesus is for both of them; neither of them “wins”; they both get what they’ve asked for, and more. Mark 5:21-43.

Jesus has limits. Where there is no hospitality, no receptivity, the gospel simply can’t be heard. Jesus can’t do works of power; he urges his 12 apostles to move on down the road. What are the practices of hospitality that ensure Jesus could get a hearing among us? (For one, we have to avoid assuming that we already know who he is. We can’t keep hold of him like that.) Mark 6:1-13.

The cost of discipleship: John the Baptist has left the building. While Jesus is sending out disciples for wildly successful ministries, John the B’s disciples are grieving his gruesome and untimely death. This is a strange story, told as Herod’s flashback, placed here why? Perhaps to prevent an overly confident celebration by Jesus’s followers? “We knew this could happen all along.” Mark 6:14-30.