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!

Pray It like you stole it (part deux)

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A few months ago we looked at great prayers from the Hebrew Bible and imagined what it would be like to pray like that… So let’s return to prayer as an essential Christian practice and examine the prayerful habits of Jesus. What was the nature of his life of prayer? What did he pray for?

Introduction: Jesus at prayer. Jesus cultivated a habit of prayer because it is a deeply human impulse; we long to reconnect the thread between ourselves and our Maker. (This is not something animals do. It’s a decisive development in human evolution, to wonder about and long for your Source.) Jesus at prayer is not the super-spiritual holy man; Jesus at prayer is Jesus at his most human. We have the same impulse but it gets thwarted by all kinds of noise (distraction, shame, bad theology, etc.). Luke 5:12-16; Luke 6:12-15; Mark 9:14-29.

Jesus addresses God in metaphor. Let’s talk about the “Our Father” – what does it mean to address God as “father”? (Or “Abba,” as Jesus does in Gethsemane?) We’re talking about metaphorical language for Protector, Nurturer, Progenitor, Provider, Helper, Champion… Is there language that would more adequately capture that meaning for us? Specifically, could we use Mother-Father or some language that would be gender-inclusive for our context? Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4.

Jesus prays publicly, to be overheard by others. Public prayer is a strange kind of discourse – addressed to God, but meant for the listener’s ears as well. What kinds of things does Jesus pray for his disciples to hear? (For unity… for strength… for them to recognize who he is…) And what does this mean for our own practice of prayer, in G-groups, for example, where we’re meant to be pray aloud for and with each other? Matthew 11:25-30; John 17; Luke 22:31-32.

Jesus prays thanksgiving to the Source of Life. Praying before our meals is not just a vestigial habit of old-fashioned piety; it is a fundamental reminder of Who gives us life and breath. Forgetting where our nourishment comes from is a real danger; Jesus did not forget. One of the easiest things to do re: prayer is cultivate a habit of pre-meal thanksgiving. Mark 6:35-42; Mark 14:22-25; Deuteronomy 6:4-13.

Jesus prays for the next generation. Jesus knew that his ministry had generational consequences. He insisted on the necessity of having our religious practice disturbed by little children, because otherwise we lose the future-bending thread of our life together. What we are doing now has implications for those who come next. The disturbance of little children is holy disturbance. Matthew 19:13-15.

Jesus prays politically and personally. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus asks for the reign of God to “come” – “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” This is a political (and dangerous) prayer, subverting earthly empire by submission to God’s own reign. Moreover, Jesus prays that his own desires will be subsumed in God’s reign – even when his own wishes are completely contrary to what God wants. Matthew 6:9-13; Mark 6:39-46; Mark 14:32-42.

Jesus prays the prayer of despair. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The absence of a God you still believe in is a terror, and one that Jesus experienced on the cross – perhaps the most compelling reason for the crucifixion I can think of, that he should be pushed to the extreme of the soul’s dark night so he can relate to our own “cries of dereliction.” Sadness, betrayal, anger – and their articulation – have a place in our faithful religious experience. It is not a sin to be deeply, deeply sad. Mark 15:25-34; Psalm 22.

Jesus prays compassionately for our forgiveness. Jesus often responded with compassion for the ignorance of the crowds who followed him. But to respond with compassion even to the ignorance that led to his crucifixion is super-human, right? But here he is, at his most vulnerable, assuming our ignorance. That is grace, to be thought ignorant rather than malevolent. And then there is Stephen, echoing Jesus’s sentiment of compassionate forgiveness, praying with his last breaths for God to forgive his persecutors. Mercy. Luke 23:26-34; Acts 7:54-60.