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HAS HE SAID HE IS SORRY? GROUNDS FOR FORGIVENESS

HAS HE SAID HE IS SORRY?  GROUNDS FOR FORGIVENESS

 Matthew 18.21-35

Warner M. Bailey

                Just how merciful was the king if he was ready to sell his servant and his estate as partial payment for the debt?  Was it really possible for a king’s servant to run up such a fantastic debt?  Can I really believe that the servant would have been so unmoved by the forgiveness of the sum that he would have tried to gouge his fellow-servant that way?  How forgiving is the king, really, who would imprison a servant and have him tortured forevermore?  What is it, actually, that God will do to every one of us who does not forgive from the heart?  What does it mean to forgive from the heart?  Does it mean to forgive warmly, feelingly, sincerely, genuinely, authentically?  Was it easier for the rich king to forgive than the desperately poor servant?  These questions lead us to the heart of Christian forgiveness.  What does a deeper study of the parable tell us?Read More »HAS HE SAID HE IS SORRY? GROUNDS FOR FORGIVENESS

Faithfulness Builds Hope

The Kingdom Come: God’s Beloved Community
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33; 44-52

“But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.”—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Facing the Challenge of a New Age,” 1956

A story very familiar to long-time St. Stephen members but which may be new to the rest of you is the story of The Hole. You see, the idea of this gothic cathedral has been around since the forties, when the session of old Broadway Presbyterian Church first dreamed of moving here. Plans were drawn up, some of which we have framed on the wall in the church office. The original sanctuary, what’s now the Parish Hall, was built immediately after the church moved to this site in the 1950s.Read More »Faithfulness Builds Hope

The Cosmic Do-Over Button

Fall and Creation
By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
July 20, 2014
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX

Romans 8:12-25

“Western Christians have imagined that, at the end of the day, God is going to throw the present space-time universe into a trashcan and we’ll be sitting on clouds playing harps. The ultimate future that we’re promised is much more interesting than that. It’s new heavens and a new Earth with new bodies to live in.”—N. T. Wright

I’m a year out from the 30th anniversary of my ordination in 1985. Don’t worry, I’m not fishing for another party like the one you threw me for my 10th anniversary. Frankly, the 30th anniversary of my ordination only reminds me of how old I am. But I do often have a fantasy. I sometimes wish I could go back to those first early years of my ministry, when I was a solo pastor of a small but wonderful little inner city church in Virginia, and start over again, but with all the knowledge that I’ve garnered from the past twenty-nine years. There were many good things about my years there, but many things that didn’t go so well either because of my personal shortcomings or because I simply didn’t know enough. That church in 1985 would benefit so much from what I know today in 2014 about pastoral care, preaching, worship leadership, community engagement, and social justice.Read More »The Cosmic Do-Over Button

Seed

Genesis 25: 19-34
Romans 8: 1-11
Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

“Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of what will be.”
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)

Carl Jung once said that we spend the first half of our lives building our personal kingdoms, and the second half defending them. You get to my age, and you start to think, I’ve arrived. Everything I’ve got, I think, is the pinnacle. It’s the result of my hard work. I should rest on my laurels. Change becomes viewed as a threat.

The problem is, the Gospel is all about change. Jesus came preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Repent has come today to mean, renounce your sins. But that’s not what it means in Greek. The word in Greek is metanoia, and it means change. Change, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The world is changing, because the world has to change when the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Change, because you and I have to change when the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

And the Kingdom of Heaven is always at hand.Read More »Seed

Joy

Genesis 24:58-67
Romans 7:15-25
St. Matthew 11:16-19; 25-30
In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis talks about one of three particular experiences in his life that gives him joy. It is, he says, “the memory of a memory.”

As I stood beside a flowering currant bush on a summer day there suddenly arose in me without warning, and as if from a depth not of years but of centuries, the memory of that earlier morning at the Old House [in which I grew up,] when my brother had brought his toy garden into the nursery. It is difficult to find words strong enough for the sensation which came over me; Milton’s ‘enormous bliss’ of Eden comes somewhere near it. It was a sensation of desire; but desire for what?… Before I knew what I desired, the desire itself was gone, the whole glimpse… withdrawn, the world turned commonplace again, or only stirred by a longing for the longing that had just ceased.Read More »Joy

God of the Absurd

Genesis 22:1-14
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42

“All the while Abraham had faith, believing that God would not demand Isaac of him, though ready all the while to sacrifice him, should it be demanded of him. He believed this on the strength of the absurd; for there was no question of human calculation any longer. And the absurdity consisted in God’s, who yet made this demand of him, recalling his demand the very next moment.” –Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

I spent a bit of time early in my life as a stringer for the Roanoke Times & World News in Christiansburg, VA. On the staff room bulletin board there was an article prominently displayed that had an attention-grabbing headline. It was called “First, Kill Your Babies.” It was not about homicide, but about writing. It was a variation on the quote often attributed to William Faulkner: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” Stephen King—an expert on killing one’s darlings—put it this way: “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even though it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill all your darlings.” The point, of course, is that often it’s the clever little touches, the ones we most enjoyed, that need to be brutally excised from an article or story in order for it to be a good article or story.

I thought of that as I reread Soren Kierkegaard’s striking interpretation of the story of Abraham’s attempt to sacrifice his son Isaac. It may seem at first an odd comparison. After all, Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac is not light-hearted writing advice but easily the most disturbing story of the Bible.Read More »God of the Absurd

St. Stephen the Visionary

St. Stephen

Acts 7: 51-60

 

“It is not the punishment, but the cause, that makes the martyr.” St. Augustine

 As many of you can tell us, the transition of old Broadway Presbyterian Church to its new location on a hill near TCU was a tough transition indeed. Rev. Hardie retired, preaching from Broadway’s pulpit; and the Rev. R.W. Jablonowski, former lawyer and former Marine chaplain led Broadway as it abandoned its old digs and started building here, on this site, in 1950. While the congregation waited for the new building to be erected, they met in the old Paschal High School auditorium, which is now MacLean Middle School. One of the more controversial topics that were debated during the transition was, what do we name this new church? Many were still fond of Broadway Presbyterian, but of course people pointed out, we aren’t located on Broadway Street anymore!Read More »St. Stephen the Visionary

Stranger

by Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

St. Luke 24:13-35

“You have to be a stranger yourself. There has to be an intentional marginality, an intentional experience that becomes part of our spiritual discipline.  One can’t claim the role of host all the time; … it is a gift also to be willing to be guests and to share in people’s lives.”–Christine D. Pohl, Professor of Social Ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary

 It’s been almost ten years since I preached my first sermon here at St. Stephen. It’s been almost ten years since I arrived here a stranger, and you welcomed me.

Read More »Stranger

Easter: Jesus Rose

 

by Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

John 20: 19-31

 

“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.  That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”—N. T. Wright (b. 1948), Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church

 

Today we celebrate Easter. Easter is the most important Christian holy day, because this is the day that we remember that Jesus rose from the dead. He was dead, but God raised Him from the dead.  This past week We have been reflecting on Jesus’ suffering and death. Often our focus is his life and teachings. none of that is in itself particularly unique. Other wise people have taught. Other miracle workers have healed. Other martyrs have suffered and died. Perhaps He should have been remembered, if He was remembered at all, as one among many great teachers of history.

But He rose from the dead. That changes everything.Read More »Easter: Jesus Rose