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Holy Spirit

The Wounds of the (Holy) Spirit

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Pentecost 2013

John 20: 19-29

Genesis 11: 1-9

 Leonard Cohen once wrote, “A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.” A lot of us know that, and know it profoundly. We know that love hurts. We know it when our loved ones are declining in health, and there’s nothing to do about it. We know it when our children take risks and make mistakes or simply seem so vulnerable and we can’t help them or they don’t let us help them.  We know it when we’re shocked, stunned, and grieved by a disaster of regional impact, like the recent tornadoes or the explosion in West. We know it when there’s a disaster of national impact, like 9-11 or the bombing at the Boston Marathon, and we all feel vulnerable and want to dig a hole and hide.

When the Word has been made flesh in our lives, and the Divine has touched our hearts and souls, we’re vulnerable. We’re certain to get wounded.Read More »The Wounds of the (Holy) Spirit

Chapter VIII: The Cowtown Christ Comes Back!

John 20: 19-29
By the Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

John, Peter, Joanna, and Anna traveled with the hearse to pick up Jesse’s body at Eagle Pass. When they arrived, they had to pass, once again, through reporters and distraught crowds. Jesse’s pale, slightly bluish body was arranged on a metal morgue table, covered by a sheet from the chest down, over which could be seen the “y” incision made by the coroner.Read More »Chapter VIII: The Cowtown Christ Comes Back!

A Personal Journey, 8: God’s Kingdom of Forgiveness

A Canterbury Tale

By the end of my sophomore year at Hampden-Sydney College, Inter-Varsity, our official campus fellowship group, was becoming more exclusionary and judgmental. There were standards that brooked no room for questions or disagreement. I was increasingly frustrated for my friends in IV who had questions, or were troubled in their souls, or who didn’t toe the fundamentalist line, or who weren’t quite pretty enough, cool enough, or secure enough in their faith to fit the IV model. Don’t get me wrong, there were many good, faithful people in IV–but the tenor of the group had become increasingly “Us against Them”–us against the “liberal religion professors,” us against the fratty boys, us against the Creeping Religion of Secular Humanism. Us against the world.Read More »A Personal Journey, 8: God’s Kingdom of Forgiveness

Big Tent?

Former PC(USA) moderator and prolific blogger Bruce Reyes-Chow has started a petition drive called “There is more than one version of Christianity!” His point is that there is a great deal of diversity the Christian family. Christians need to be more tolerant of one another and the media and culture need to recognize Christian diversity, too.Read More »Big Tent?

Calling–1 Samuel 3: 1-10; John 1: 43-57


By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

January 15, 2012

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

Fort Worth, TX

 

The Saturday Evening Post recently ran a story that checked up on another story they published over 100 years ago: an article written in December of 1900 predicting what will happen in the 20th Century. The old article got a lot of predictions right. It predicted that the average American would be 1 to 2 inches taller. It predicted digital photography: “Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China, a hundred years hence, snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later.” It even predicted wireless technology. All in all, pretty amazing.Read More »Calling–1 Samuel 3: 1-10; John 1: 43-57

Pentecost: Positive Apocalypse

Acts 2: 1-21

A few weeks ago, many of the faithful were disappointed that the Day of Judgment did not arrive as someone had predicted. There was no Rapture of the faithful to heaven, no judgment of the faithless. The terrifying end of the world scenario this person had predicted didn’t come to be.

The thing is, terrifying, end of the world scenarios are happening all the time. We’ve seen our share of them. The Stock Market crash. 9-11. Katrina and other natural disasters. The list goes on. All sorts of end of the world scenarios, things that someone predicrted would be THE WORST THING EVER have ended up happening—yet somehow we’ve survived.Read More »Pentecost: Positive Apocalypse