Skip to content

2700 McPherson Ave., Fort Worth | 817-927-8411

Sermons

Chapter I: The Cowtown Christ Loses Her Job

By the Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX

February 17, 2013
First Sunday in Lent
Luke 4: 1-11

The Cowtown Christ is a series of sermons that reimagines the ministry of Christ as if it was taking place in Fort Worth today. Please remember that this is a work of fiction, happening in a fictionalized Fort Worth. While many events, facts, places, institutions, and characters are real people, The Cowtown Christ, her followers, most of those she meets, and her adversaries are completely fictional, as are any of the events that take place in her life. 

The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesse, The Cowtown Christ.
“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark 1:1

Jesse grew up a child of Mexican immigrants. They lived a few blocks off Berry Street in a tiny neighborhood along with other Mexican immigrants. Her parents both worked hard, and so did she from very young.Read More »Chapter I: The Cowtown Christ Loses Her Job

Teachable Moments

TEACHABLE MOMENTS

Joshua 4.1-7 and 4.15-5.1

I Timothy 4:6-13     Luke 2:41-52

The Rev. Dr. Warner M. Bailey

January 27, 2013

A class of fourth graders was given the overnight assignment by their teacher to write a one page paper about their family roots.  One fourth grade boy asked his mother for help on his paper, but he neglected to tell her it would be read in class the next day.Read More »Teachable Moments

“Spotlight Gifts, Spirit Gifts”

“Spotlight Gifts, Spirit Gifts”
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Reverend Beth Hessel
January 20, 2013

        I have a confession to make: I am a bit of a fan of the Fox television show Glee. It is a story about an Ohio high school Glee Club, and the trials, travails, and small triumphs of students who battle against the opinions of hostile classmates to claim their artistic gifts, and compete amongst each other for a chance in the spotlight to showcase their talents. While often over the top and campy, Glee also touches on the basic needs of young people, indeed of all of us, for love, acceptance, and the opportunity to discover and use our God-given gifts while also respecting and encouraging the giftedness of those around us. The show explores how a community – be it a student body, an organization, or a larger group — disintegrates when the talents or traits of some individuals are valued over those of others – when the athlete or the prima donna singer or the able-bodied or heterosexual individuals are privileged and the contributions of everyone else denigrated. Glee celebrates the unique giftedness of every individual and the importance of using our gifts for the common good. It highlights the integral value of everyone to the health of a body and challenges the notion, so prevalent in our culture, that some people and some gifts, are more important than others.Read More »“Spotlight Gifts, Spirit Gifts”

CHRISTMAS AND FATE Ecclesiastes 9.1-12 Galatians 3.23-4.7 Luke 1.57-79 Rev. Dr. Warner M. Bailey Everywhere you look on your TV guide these days, you are… Read More »

Christmas

CHRISTMAS CATASTROPHE Isaiah 60.1-6 Psalm 72.1-7, 19-14 Ephesians 3.1-12 Matthew 2.1-18 December 16, 2012 Rev. Dr. Warner M. Bailey The Wise Men stopped for directions… Read More »Christmas

Hope, Realism, and Faith

Here’s an intriguing observation, learned from a book by a prominent expert on the biology of the brain and how it relates to mental disease. The book is A First-Rate Madness, and the author is Nassir Ghaemi, MD, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts University.

He says that studies have shown that the average, non-neurotic person is more optimistic than he or she has a right to be. Read More »Hope, Realism, and Faith

Why Attend Church?

Where Is Everybody?

Hebrews 10: 19-25

Recently a long-time parishioner shared a story about an even longer-time parishioner. It dates from a few decades back, when the storyteller was a young mother who’d only recently joined St. Stephen. She overheard the older woman say that she and her husband were often so financially challenged in raising their large family that sometimes they had to go to the bank and take out a loan so that they could pay off their pledge to the church. “I have never forgotten that,” the storyteller says. “I have never forgotten that.”Read More »Why Attend Church?

Let Us Go to the Other Side

November 11, 2012
St. Mark 4:35-41

Several years ago when I lived in Virginia, I paid a visit to an interesting little church, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, VA. Fifth Avenue is a historically African American church, founded over a hundred years ago. When I visited, it was a small struggling church, and maybe it still is, but when I was there I was struck by a stained glass window in its sanctuary. It’s a picture of a beautiful, calm, river scene with, of all things, Civil War tents on one side and a wooded area on the other. I asked what it was and discovered to my surprise that this stained glass window depicted the Rappahannock River going through the Civil War battlefield of Chancellorsville, and that the window was dedicated to one of the Confederacy’s greatest generals, Stonewall Jackson.Read More »Let Us Go to the Other Side