Matthew 1: 18-25
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
We spend a lot of time celebrating and remembering Mary’s role at Christmas. What about Joseph?
Joseph’s role was simple but powerful. He was supposed to accept responsibility for one of God’s children who was not his own child.Read More »Being Joseph: Christmas Eve, 2011
John 1: 16-30
December 11, 2011
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
The Christian message, simply put, is this: Jesus shows us everything we need to know about God.
Is there more to know about God than Jesus? Absolutely. But everything that matters about God we learn through Jesus. We learn it though His teachings. We learn it through his life. We learn it through his death. We learn it through his resurrection. In Jesus, God is distilled to God’s essence.
Here’s what we learn about God, through Jesus.Read More »Now In Flesh Appearing
Mark 13: 24-37
November 27, 2011
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
I’m sure we all remember the big billboards a few months ago announcing that The Judgment was coming on May 23, 2011, so we all better be ready. And of course, it didn’t, and then the purveyor of this idea, evangelist and radio host Harold Camping, said he’d made a slight math mistake—don’t we all make math mistakes?–and actually the day of the Lord was to arrive on October 21, and of course, it didn’t again, but I don’t think people were paying as much attention, so I suppose it could have come and nobody noticed it.Read More »“Tell Us, When Will This Be?”–Everyday Apocalypses
Rev. Dr. Warner Bailey, Preacher
Ezekiel 34.1-24 Psalm 100 Ephesians 1.15-23 John 10.11-16
November 20, 2011
Before I go any further, I owe you a word of full disclosure. You may remember that you were told prior to the reading of the Old Testament lesson that what you would hear would be coming from the New Jerusalem Bible. If you were following the reading from your pew Bible, you were reading the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The Jerusalem Bible comes from the work of scholars who are part of the Eccole Biblique in Jerusalem. The Eccole Biblique is an internationally respected school of biblical study founded by French Roman Catholic scholars. I chose the Jerusalem Bible over the pew Bible for today’s text because of what the Jerusalem Bible says God will do with the fat sheep when the new shepherd comes in judgment and salvation. The Jerusalem Bible says that the shepherd will watch over the fat sheep. The watching over is part of the overall plan to save the entire flock. Your pew Bible says that the savior-shepherd will destroy the fat sheep. Watch over or destroy. Those are pretty big alternatives.Read More »THE NINETY-NINE AND THE ONE
Matthew 25: 14-30
November 13, 2011
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Pastor
One of the great things about Facebook is the ability to get back in touch with people you haven’t seen in decades. Yes, decades. Like my high school friends. It’s kind of cool to see how they’ve turned out. Some of them are pretty much what I’d expect—the guy who I thought would be a preacher is a preacher; the guy who I thought would be a no-good ne’er do well is indeed a no-good ne’er do well. Most people grew up just to be themselves, but grown up—the same basic personalities and quirks and gifts and foibles, only now on an adult stage, with jobs, families, so on; and with adult problems, like unemployment, divorce, kids with problems.
There are some exceptions, though, like my friend Connie.Read More »To Have and To Have Not
Matthew 20: 20-28
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
It may be disturbing to members of St. Stephen how easily your pastor can come up with a topic for a sermon on Children’s Sunday. My topic this morning is the movie “Thor,” about the Norse Thunder God. And since our Old Testament reading today was the Ten Commandments let me assure you that the movie makes clear that Thor is not a god, but an extra-dimensional being, and so I’m not in violation of the First or Second Commandments.
I went to see “Thor” not expecting much. I was never a big fan of the comic book when I was a kid—all these Norse gods running around spouting “thees” and “thous” like bad actors in a high school Shakespeare play.Read More »Know Your Place!–Children’s Sabbath Sermon
September 18, 2011
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
I did a couple of conferences this past year where some of the speakers were classmates of mine. In fact, some of them were in the classes below me when I was in seminary. And look at them now! Headlining major conferences! They’ve done so well! I’m so proud of them!
No I’m not!
I keep thinking: Why them and not me?Read More »Begrudging God–Matthew 20: 1-16
Matthew 16: 21-28
August 28, 2011
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
The disciple Cephas has really scored. All the other disciples are high-fiving him. He got it right! He figured it out! Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God! And to reward him, Jesus has renamed him “Peter,” which means “The Rock,” and Jesus has told Peter, right in front of everybody, that Peter will be the rock on which Jesus will build His church, and that he, Peter, will have the keys to heaven and hell! He’ll personally decide who is in and who is out!Read More »Too Hard to Believe–A Sermon on Poverty, Politics, and Faith–August 28, 2011
Yes!
Exodus 1: 8-2: 10
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
The other day I heard about a teacher at American University in DC, Lynn Ganek. When she was studying to be a teacher, she received a student mini-grant for her project. That project ultimately became The Reading Rainbow. Now, she and her family aren’t rich, but they believe in education. They wanted to put their money where their hearts are. So this is what they do: every year, they provide ten grants of $500 each to student teachers who develop projects they feel are making a difference. It’s a time-consuming task that requires developing and reviewing piles of applications and narrowing the field to the ten best-qualified. Then they have a big celebration dinner. They go to all this trouble, $5000 plus the expense of the dinner, because they believe that good teachers make the world a better place.Read More »Yes!– Exodus 1: 8-2: 10
WHERE THE WAVES ARE
Genesis 37.1-4, 12-28 Psalm 105.1-6, 16-22, 45b Romans 10.5-15 Matthew 14.22-33
Seeing is not always believing, especially when you look out into the teeth of a storm. Seeing is not always believing, especially when our heart is full of bitterness, anger, rage, and that sinking feeling of absolute helplessness. The disciples of Jesus had been with him many months, perhaps a couple of years, and they had witnessed his mighty power many, many times. They knew his face like the back of their hands, and yet when they saw him coming to them over the boiling waves, their last ounce of courage evaporated in the face of the storm. The whole boatload of them convulsed into the despair of overwhelming horror. They thought he was a ghost, the grim reaper, come to take them to their watery graves.Read More »Where the Waves Are–Dr. Warner Bailey, Preacher
