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?)

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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.

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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.)

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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: [email protected]. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle ([email protected]), 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: [email protected]. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle ([email protected]), 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: [email protected]. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle ([email protected]), 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: [email protected]. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle ([email protected]), 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: [email protected]. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle ([email protected]), 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: [email protected]. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle ([email protected]), 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: [email protected]. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle ([email protected]), or just send a check to P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060