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Chapter III: The Cowtown Christ Throws A Party At Billy Bob’s

Isaiah 55: 1-3

Revelation 19: 4-9
John 2: 1-11

The Cowtown Christ is a series of sermons about what it would be like if the Christ of the gospels came to modern Fort Worth. The story is entirely imaginary, though many situations are real to our local community.

The Cowtown Christ is Jesse, a young Hispanic woman who has begun to build a following in the community with her message that the City of God, la Ciudad de Dios, is in Fort Worth, that God’s presence is here, and that healing for the community can happen, if we believe.
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By this point, Jesse had a fair following, but three regulars were her central group—those she called “mis compañeros cercanos—my close companions.” They included Peter, the former gas company exec who was working at the iPhone store when she met him; John, the suburban mega-church pastor; and Joanna, a Fort Worth police officer who Jesse knew from her days working with the homeless. Joanna was one of a couple of FW cops assigned to the East Lancaster area specifically to work with homeless youth. Youth are especially vulnerable on the streets, and often are there because of difficult family situations. Many of them are gay, as was Joanna herself.Read More »Chapter III: The Cowtown Christ Throws A Party At Billy Bob’s

Chapter II: The Cowtown Christ Gets Her iPhone Fixed

The Cowtown Christ Gets Her iPhone Fixed

Isaiah 61: 1-3

Romans 3: 21-26

Luke 5: 17-26: 

Then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed… When Jesus saw their faith, He said [to the paralyzed man], “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, “Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”…Jesus answered them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk?’ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralyzed man—“I say to you, stand up, take your bed, and go to your home.” 

 And immediately [the paralyzed man] stood before them…. Luke 5; 17-26, edited.

 

The Other Fort Worth

A few years ago former Fort Worth city manager Charles Boswell started talking about “The Other Fort Worth”—the Fort Worth where the economy wasn’t developing, where the jobless rate plummeted, where violence and crime were high, and where the dropout rate from school was the worst. He was challenging people to think about the other side of the coin, and he always emphasized that for Fort Worth to be truly successful, “The Other Fort Worth” needed to succeed as well.

It was a vision for what the Bible calls SHALOM, the health and wholeness that God wants for us all. For any community to be healthy and whole, then everyone needs to benefit.

Read More »Chapter II: The Cowtown Christ Gets Her iPhone Fixed

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

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

All Things New

Revelation 21: 1-6

All Saints Sunday

All things new.

That’s what we believe as Christians.

A new heaven. A new earth.  Everyone of our loved ones who has died in the faith, possibly a whole lot of others, maybe even everybody, made completely new. You and me, made completely new.Read More »All Things New

The Gospel of Job, II: Redemption

The Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind, by William Blake.
The Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind, by William Blake.

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

October 28, 2012

The Book of Job, Chapter 42

 Job ends on a bizarre, uncomfortable note. God “rewards” Job by giving him NEW wealth, NEW property, most bizarrely, NEW CHILDREN.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or even a biblical scholar, to step back and say, “Wait a minute.” This is a reward? New children can be wonderful and beloved, but they can’t possibly make up for children who’ve died. Is this how God thinks?Read More »The Gospel of Job, II: Redemption

The Priesthood of All SSPC-ers: The Blessing of Tuesday Bible Study

I look forward to many things in the church week, but perhaps few as much as the weekly Tuesday Bible study at noon. I have led this group ever since I first came to SSPC eight years ago, and while the participants have rolled over a lot over the years, it’s surprising the overall consistency. A core group has been with me almost since the beginning.Read More »The Priesthood of All SSPC-ers: The Blessing of Tuesday Bible Study