That's What She Said

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. For John, Jesus arrives from cosmic pre-existence. And the only birth referenced by John is our birth – “But to all who received him…he gave power to become children of God, who were born…of God.” How about if Christmas is when we get born, our true identities made plain by the light of Christ?

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Lowly mother, lowly shepherds, lowly messiah. Luke has a strong economic theme running through his gospel, beginning at the beginning. From Luke we get the barn, the manger, the swaddling clothes, the impoverished holy family and their impoverished guests. When the angels show up to sing the shepherds toward that baby, what’s happening to our own sense of economic privilege and poverty?

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Baptism is the only birth that matters. For Mark, there’s no birth narrative – just a baptism. John is the midwife of Jesus’s new life; God the Father looks on in amazed pleasure (“Wow!”); Jesus comes of age in the desert; then he begins to speak in his own voice, and his first words? “The reign of God, y’all!”

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The #nastywomen who begat the messiah. Say their names: Tamar. Rahab. Ruth. Bathsheba. Mary. A reprise of a sermon Katie has preached twice before, in 2016 and 2019.

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Sheep and goats, “You did it unto me.” The “Son of Humanity” so identifies with the small, oppressed, marginalized people of the world that our lives can be assessed by how we have aligned ourselves with respect to them. Think of the gladiator games, where the emperor gave a thumbs up or thumbs down for the life of the competitors. Here, the emperor is replaced by “the least of these my brethren,” collectively informing Jesus the King as to the worthiness of each ovine in the judgment queue. A note: this is a parable, making extensive use of metaphor. It’s not a literal description of a “judgment day,” but it’s an imaginative exercise about an imagined future meant to provoke real action, here and now. 

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Buried talents. Using a capitalist analogy, Jesus seems to advocate for risk-taking in the life of his disciples. We don’t wait for God to act by hunkering down, passive and careful, hands closed tightly around what we’ve got. Rather, we release and relinquish, finding courage in our understanding of who God is – not the “harsh man” of v. 24, making us too afraid to act. What is it about God’s nature that empowers us to take risks for God’s sake?

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.

Ten bridesmaids. The Christian liturgical year closes out with three parables from Matthew 25. The one about the bridesmaids seems to indicate Jesus’s awareness that what we’re waiting for may take a long time, longer than we want, longer than we’re ready for. What are we likely to run out of, if we haven’t filled our tanks? (And is it really his advice that those with plenty should not share with those in need? Can we push back on that? But he’s right in guessing that it’s our impulse to hoard, and to take some pleasure in other people’s “foolish” unpreparedness.) 

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“Children of light, children of the day.” In vv. 1-11, Paul describes our waiting as an active readiness – staying woke, keeping awareness that all is not well until we are at home in God’s heart. What does the uniform of faith, hope, and love (v. 8) prepare us for while we wait? And the closing instructions in vv. 12-28 – it’s a laundry list of virtues for life in community and life with God. 

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“So that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” While we wait, people die. Paul’s own mythology of angels and trumpets in the clouds is not exactly resonant to our ears, but the hope of “being with the Lord forever” is still how we “encourage one another.” We say, “Death does not get the last word – as it did not with Jesus, so it will not with us” (v. 14, paraphrased).

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.

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” The Thessalonians’ cultural context included expressions of sexuality that were exploitative and used in the politics of domination. Bringing one’s body and all its uses into alignment with God’s dream for the world is a strong and subversive statement against social hierarchy and a culture of abuse.

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.