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Galileo Church – a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) – is a progressive Christian faith community in Mansfield, Texas. Our pastor – Rev. Dr. Katie Hays – likes to talk. She really loves to talk about the difficult, messy, and confusing questions that arise from trying to understand Jesus. These are some of the things she (and occasionally other friends of ours) shares with us in her sermons.
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Give God what belongs to God. The Sunday before our national elections, let’s reflect on what we’re meant to release to the empire vs. what we give only to God. “Do not put your trust in princes” from Psalm 146 becomes “Do not put your trust in politicians.” To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a co…
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The Son of Humanity in service. There’s no escaping the upside-down power structure of Jesus’s campaign (or God’s reign). Finally, it gets down to really small things, like who takes the trash out at the end of the night. 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: F…
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Beware of wealth, and redistribute it to dispel its power. In the tradition of the prophets, Jesus was suspicious of accumulated wealth, and urged his followers not to be trapped by it. Money demands loyalty (sweat, time, relationships, wellbeing...). God’s reign competes with money for our dependence and loyalty. Carissa Robinson is preaching. To …
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Light up each person’s dignity. In a training for non-violent, peacekeeping poll chaplains, a rabbi instructed us to “light up the dignity” of both perpetrators and targets of abuse. Jesus’s reversal of blindness sounds ableist to our ears, but what if we can see his work as lighting up the dignity of the shushed Bartimaeus? And what if that is Jos…
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Collaboration across difference. There’s no need, Jesus says, to fence off good work to ensure our exclusive claim to power. Good work happens in lots of places, apart from us, and it’s the goodness that matters, not who gets credit. Also, side note: stay salty, disciples. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting an…
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Generational thinking. It’s not only trauma we pass on from generation to generation...it’s also the sequoias we’re planting now that will come to fruit only for our descendants. Jesus’s time is short, but his vision is long, and it begins with the snot-nosed kids right in front of him. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the …
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Abundance, abundantly clear. The age-old question regarding material resources: is there enough? or should we hoard and hand-wring, worrying that we’ll be left empty-handed? In the world Jesus is building, there is always enough if we trust God’s provision. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a com…
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Getting Low, Saying Thanks. Real gratitude requires vulnerability. Paul alllllmost didn’t make it in his thank-you note to the Philippians. Rev. Dr. Katie Hays is back! 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…
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Did Jesus Really Call the Syrophoenician Woman a B****? Or was something profound taking place as Jesus ceded power in the conversation to this foreign woman and allowed a historic breaking of glass ceilings and agency for all who are marginalized in the church and beyond. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting an…
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Religious Loopholes: The Danger in Claiming Spiritual Exemptions. n this cluster of scripture from Mark, Jesus is letting the community know that those with religious/cultural power have been nullifying scripture, twisting commandments to benefit themselves and those who serve their purposes, and in 2024, this is a relevant message. Loopholes have …
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The Armor of Each Other. The "Armor of God" has often been used as a weapon against us, and as a tool of empire. Is there a way to draw meaning from it still? Is there a useful ethic for approaching these militant texts in the midst of a violent empire? As always, we do it together. Josh Bridges-Hickey is preaching. To tell us your thoughts on this…
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Which Jesus is on the Menu? How do the frequent metaphors in the scripture help us to transcend the literal and go deeper in our relationship with God. David specifically examines Jesus’ invitation to eat the bread and become intimately engaged with Jesus for our own growth and to better represent love and justice in the world around us. David Clar…
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What’s your reason? We are required to love, serve, forgive, etc., well, all that good stuff is impossible when our “reason” is temporal, not organic or authentic, not focused on being an offering to God. We get tired when the energy behind our reason is solely our own and not God’s. What is your reason? Rev. Yevette Christy is preaching. To tell u…
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A Creed, A Preposition, and a Love Letter. Growing together as the body of Christ is a lifelong project that we can only do with the help and the faith of one another and of Christ Jesus. Together, we grow toward Christ, we grow toward one another, and we live lives worthy of the life to which we have been called. Rev. Remi Shores is preaching. To …
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An Endless Thread. Love calls us through our knowledge, but ultimately that same love shatters our knowing and awakens us to something deeper, wider, more. Rev. Yevette Christy 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…
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Wrestling for Identity: Embracing the Limp. Life often presents us with struggles, some of our own making, but often, as in the case of the story of Jacob in Genesis, they present an opportunity to wrestle through a divine encounter and find ourselves different on the other side. We may walk with a limp, but our journey has found new direction. It …
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At church, we practice relationships with one another so that we can learn to love. Then, we take that love out into the world God still loves and Christ goes with us. Remi Shores 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 Instag…
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Nostalgia is Bullshit. Amid growing pains after the 10-year mark, Galileo is working on their 4th missional priority: Real relationship, no bullshit ever. How do we keep nostalgia from getting in the way of that work? How do we keep believing that this moral arc of the universe is, somehow, bending towards justice? Remi Shores is preaching. To tell…
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Great is Thy Faithfulness. One of the ways the ancient Israelites mourned the destruction of Jerusalem was by doing so as a community, together. Our cities may not be destroyed, but we have all lived through hard things. What can learn from our ancestors in faith about grieving together? Josh Bridges-Hickey is preaching. To tell us your thoughts on…
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Declaring the Day of Salvation. What does it mean to announce that today is the Day of Salvation? Carissa Robinson 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: info@galileochurch.org. …
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Working Out an Embodied Faith. What happens when we fully inhabit our bodies? And what happens when the Christian church returns to the broken body of Christ? Carissa Robinson 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.…
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We Miraculous Specimens. Shit is hard, we're all going to die, and every living body is still a relentless miracle. When everything dies and everyone grieves, what hope do we have to hold onto? What, and who, is this all for? Josh Bridges-Hickey is preaching. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a c…
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God Calls Out to Us - A look at what's stirring in the silent, empty, and barren places, and a challenge to tune in to the questions these stir up— for from them, we might just hear the voice of God, calling out. From 1 Samuel 3. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social …
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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: info@galileochurch.org. To contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of Galileo Church, find us on Venmo, Patreon, or Zelle (generosity@galileohurch…
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Happy Birthday, Church! Having contemplated our way of belonging and beholding, it’s time to consider the co-conspiracy once again. Also to commission our leaders on MLT and SCT. 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 …
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Be-Holding Each Other. Jesus identified his followers as “family,” and prayed that we would be as unified as he and God were unified. That’s not an idea – it’s a set of practices that we’ve been talking about all these weeks. To tell us your thoughts on this sermon, click through to the web posting and leave us a comment. Or, find us on social medi…
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