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!

THe one of god’s own choosing

The One of God's Own Choosing album cover.jpeg

We’re jumping back on the Revised Common Lectionary, kinda. It’s the season to read about Jesus’s early days in Mark’s gospel, but as usual Galileo Church is going to read more of that text than the tradition requires. Context matters. Plot matters.  

As Mark builds our understanding of Jesus’s identity by the things he says, does, and suffers, what is the picture we’re getting? He’s earthy, not ethereal; he’s bossy, not meek and mild; he’s got ideas about how the world should work and he won’t take no for an answer. 

Jesus is a bully. Jesus has no patience for demonic possession (and they’re everywhere! v. 25, v. 34, v. 39). There’s no negotiation, there’s no compromise, there’s no “both sides.”

Jesus wants you to go home. That “follow me” invitation isn’t for everyone; some people who get what Jesus has got just need to go on home. Or to the synagogue. Whichever he discerns is the restoration of relationship they need more than anything.

Jesus attracts losers. The guest lists at parties in Jesus’s honor are full of inappropriate people – maybe because he lets people like Levi (like us?) make the guest list. Rev. Sarah Almanza join us for her #firsttime guest-preaching at Galileo!

Jesus is bad at religion. You can keep all the rules, or you can be a better human. Probably not both at the same time.

Editor’s note: due to technical difficulties, the audio for this week had to be recorded with an iPhone rather than through our soundboard.

Jesus needs help. Saving the world is overwhelming. Some days Jesus could not even. So he figured out who he liked, and trusted, and asked them to pick up some of the burden. And maybe one (or more) of the ones he chose were rotten… but he didn’t seem too worried about that. The man just needed some help.

Jesus can’t go home again. As much as he’d like for you to be reconciled with your FOO, he himself didn’t find it possible to stay with his. He was way more interested in his FOC, and he didn’t care who knew it. Even his own mother.

Jesus fucks with the economy. Another time Jesus sends somebody home (to his friends! v. 19), all that man’s neighbors beg Jesus to leave them the hell alone. He’s messed with sacred systems – the family system with an identified patient who’s no longer sick; the economic system (when he sent somebody’s livelihood over a seaside cliff). Yep, he’s scary.