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compassion

Joseph, Jesus’ Father ‘According to the Flesh’

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Matthew 1: 18-25

Romans 1: 1-7

“… In Matthew, Joseph plays an important role…. His ‘doing what was right’ can hardly mean his ‘fidelity to the Law’ but his compassion… The one has come in whom God in person dwells among mortals (Immanuel) and who thus will be the salvation of his people (Jesus). The importance of Jesus’ subsequent life, not his birth, is the reason for placing such stress on the obedience of Joseph, who, in the light of God’s great promise, can give up his previous moral principles to fulfill God’s command literally.” The Good News According to Matthew, Eduard Schweizer.

We know Joseph, the husband of Mary, is Jesus’ father “according to the flesh,”  as Paul puts it in our reading from Romans.This is important because it is through Joseph that Jesus is established as being a descendant of David, “according to the flesh.” Of course, “according to the Spirit,” God is Jesus’ father. But we know Joseph from the stories of the birth of Jesus. The last appearance he makes in Scripture is in Luke, when 12-year-old Jesus disappears while they are on a trip to Jerusalem. His parents search for him frantically and find that he is at the Temple, teaching the elders, who are amazed at his wisdom. We don’t have any more stories about Joseph after that. Scholars generally assume Joseph dies while Jesus is still quite young.Read More »Joseph, Jesus’ Father ‘According to the Flesh’

Chapter VII: The Cowtown Christ Is Dead

We Crucify the Cowtown Christ, II: The Cowtown Christ is Dead

John 13:1-18

Jesse the Cowtown Christ had become a political lightning rod. On one side were the far-left wing liberals, calling attention to the fact that Jude, a prominent psychiatrist, had declared Jesse in need of serious mental health treatment. Well, she wasn’t going to get any decent treatment in Texas, they said, noting the shortage of mental health services in the Lone Star State. And anyway, isn’t threatening to lock up or deport Jesse just a way for “The Man” to quiet dissent? Kinky Friedman put together a “Free Jesse” Concert in Zilker Park.Read More »Chapter VII: The Cowtown Christ Is Dead

A Personal Journey, 5: Love vs. Legalism

About six years ago, St. Stephen hosted two speakers, pro and con, on the issue of ordination of LGBT folk in the PCUSA. The issue had heated up again with the “Peace, Unity and Purity” Task Force Report to the 217th PCUSA General Assembly in 2006. The task force comprised 20 pastors and theologians on both sides of the issue of gay ordination. They advocated a “season of discernment” before any final decisions were made; but during that season there should be a “live and let live” attitude in which no one–pastor, officer, or governing body–was prosecuted for ordaining, or not ordaining, according to their conscience. It seemed a good time for a public presentation of the issues.

The first speaker was the Rev. Dr. X (forgive me for using pseudonyms–I would prefer to focus on issues, not people!). Dr. X had written a book about his own journey from evangelical condemnation of homosexuality to faithful acceptance. The next week we hosted Dr. Y, a strong critic of ordination of LGBT folk. Both nights were well attended, by people from both church and community. Many of our gay and lesbian members, and folks on both sides of the issue attended. Dr. X was well-received, but Dr. Y was not, and the reason was simple: he was a legalist.Read More »A Personal Journey, 5: Love vs. Legalism

What to Do When Jesus Leaves–John 6: 1-15, 30-36

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

John 6: 1-15, 30-36

July 29, 2012

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

Fort Worth, TX

Last week (and the week before–someone this morning commented that anybody who preaches the same passage three times is bound to get it right eventually!) I preached on this same story as it’s told in Mark. I pointed out that though the disciples advise Jesus to send the crowd out to get food, Jesus says no. He knows they’re sheep without a shepherd, and he has compassion for them, because he knows that what they really need only he can provide. They need the assurance of God’s love and the spiritual nourishment of staying together as the Beloved Community, united by their certainty that God loves them. These are things only Jesus can provide, and He provides them.

Then the Gospel of Mark says, Jesus “immediately” sent the crowd one direction, the disciples another, and himself left to pray. (Mark 6: 45)

He was the glue that held them together, but then He left and exploded the crowd after all, the very thing He’d not wanted to do at the beginning.

What do you do when Jesus leaves?

Read More »What to Do When Jesus Leaves–John 6: 1-15, 30-36

The Miracle–Mark 6: 34-44, Part 2

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
July 22, 2012
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX

Reporter Charles Duhigg tells the story of a US Army major in the town of Kufa, in Iraq, who decided to do some behavior modification. He

had analyzed videotapes of recent riots and had identified a pattern: Violence was usually preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza or other open space and, over the course of several hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle and all hell would break loose.Read More »The Miracle–Mark 6: 34-44, Part 2

Secret Agenda: Mark 1: 40-45

Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
February 12, 2012

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX

Our friend Sharon Curry, who went in December to serve as a missionary in the South Sudan, had to be evacuated almost as soon as she arrived because of ethnic violence. She has been frustrated by this, obviously—not only because she has been interrupted in the mission work she intended to do, but even more because she’s been in her placement in Akobo just long enough to get to know people. Now she is in a major city, Malakal, far from the fighting, hearing second-hand how overwhelmed her friend the local doctor is, and how all the families she’d just gotten to know are experiencing deaths and hiding in the forest, afraid to go to the hospital for fear that they’ll be killed by guerilla fighters.Read More »Secret Agenda: Mark 1: 40-45