That's What She Said

God remains and God restores (and still we wait). The restoration of Jerusalem and its temple after exile is something short of the city’s former glory. A remnant returns from exile and what they are able to effect shows their diminished status on the world stage. This “second temple” in Jerusalem under Roman occupation is the “Israel” Jesus knew; the people were hungrier than ever for a messiah to usher in God’s reign and overturn centuries of suffering.

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

God opened God’s hand to relinquish (or smack?). The Bible has an argument with itself here: as one empire after another takes bites out of Israel’s land and people, are we to understand that God has engineered their destruction? or that this is the grain of the universe, and those who go against the grain bear the consequences? In other words, does God punish the Israelites, or simply release them to their fate? The biblical prophets report variously on the primary cause of Israel’s exile. But they are agreed that God “waits to show mercy…”

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

God fulfilled the promise of land (and the people built an empire). It’s problematic to us that Israel’s armies have to obliterate other people to settle in their “promised land.” But more problematic, biblically speaking, is their wannabe empire status. The more settled they become, the more they want to play the militaristic, consumeristic, power-tripping game their neighbors play. King David’s family is an allegory for the whole nation – his house is in disorder, even as he’s “winning” the day.

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

God heard, remembered, looked, took notice – and liberated Israel. The groaning Israelites catch God’s ear, and God launches Operation Deca-Plague with Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as God’s agitators. The family-specific covenant now expands to the new nation they are becoming – if only they had somewhere to settle.

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

God wrestled Jacob, and gave him strong (enslaved) descendants. Jacob is scrappy, devious, and chosen by God to carry on the covenant with Abraham. The bloodline finally expands with his 12 sons (and unnumbered daughters); but by now God has competition for sovereignty, and Egypt’s Pharaoh claims God’s people (now “Israel”) as his own. Where does God go? Why does God wait?

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

God chose Abraham, and promised him the world. God’s relationship with Abraham (and Sarah and Hagar) begins a new era for God with God’s world – the narrowing of focus from “all creation” to just one family and its descendants. Maybe God and this family will find a way to be in harmony, a.k.a. covenant? Thereafter, Abraham becomes a meme of faithfulness beyond (before) religiosity. What God looks for in a person is trust, even when God’s promise-keeping is slow and subtle. 

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

After a week of trauma, injustice, and violence, and following a known Covid exposure to the skeleton crew in the Big Red Barn, we had to adjust our worship service, both in content and manner of production. This week’s podcast includes all of the spoken portions of Sunday’s service.

Global Jesus vs. local powers (a.k.a. Herod). The astrologers “from the East” who pay homage to toddler Jesus are ethnically, geopolitically, and religiously wrong for this story. But they signal to Herod, and to us, that something much bigger is happening in this child. God is staking a claim against Empire, and it feels like a threat. “Don’t you know, we’re talkin’ about a revolution, and it sounds like a whisper” (Tracy Chapman).

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

Religion makes God possible. What if Simeon and Anna are the apologists we need for religious infrastructure, for a community of tradition and ritual and accountability? What if we could understand that the religion (the church) is not the thing, but it is the vehicle by which the thing can come to us? (It can come other ways, for sure, but early recognition of Jesus included these who were ensconced in traditional religious structure and community.) 

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

Christmas Eve is for dreamers. If we do the genealogy from Matthew on the First Sunday of Advent, we have Joseph and his dreaming available for a short meditation on Christmas Eve – an invitation for us to dream, our sanctified imaginations pulling us into new and beautiful possibilities in the days to come. There’s a lot of hope here… 

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