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PLANNED BEFORE TIME BEGAN; LIBERATED IN THIS PRESENT AGE; IMMEASURABLY LOVED IN AGES TO COME (i)

Numbers 21.4-9   Psalm 107   Ephesians 2.1-10   John 3.14-21

 The Rev. Dr. Warner Bailey, Preacher

March 18, 2012  

 

To preach from the epistle to the Ephesians is a daunting challenge both for the preacher and for you, who must listen.  Paul’s language is high-flying, abounding in multiple meanings, and frankly just a bit weird.  So I have organized this sermon into three parts as you can see from the title: Planned before Time Began; Liberated in this Present Age; Immeasurably Loved in Ages to Come.  You see the progression goes chronologically from past to present to future.  But that’s not how I’m going to proceed.  I will begin with the middle phrase, Liberated in this Present Age, then move to the first phrase before ending with the third.Read More »PLANNED BEFORE TIME BEGAN; LIBERATED IN THIS PRESENT AGE; IMMEASURABLY LOVED IN AGES TO COME (i)

Covenant: Genesis 9: 8-17


By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

Fort Worth, TX

February 26, 2012

You probably remember the discussions between Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell after Hurricane Katrina about their belief that this natural disaster had hit New Orleans because of the city’s acceptance of gays and lesbians but also because of their sexual immorality in general. Their perspective was of course offensive at many levels, but it also reflects some pretty commonly-held notions about how God has ordered the universe. Basically the notion is that God has ordered things on a reward-and-punishment system. Bad natural occurrences, like earthquakes or famines or hurricanes, are sent as punishment by God for our moral misbehavior; likewise good things like a successful crop or a child born healthy and whole are the results of good behavior.Read More »Covenant: Genesis 9: 8-17

Don’t Leave–Transfiguration Sunday

2 Kings 2: 1-12

Mark 9: 2-9

Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher

When I started as pastor of a small church some time ago, I wanted to kick off with an officer’s retreat that dealt with some of the issues that the congregation had left over from when the previous pastor left. I had a conversation with the Christian educator, who’d been there several years and was quite sharp. He explained to me that people were extremely angry and felt betrayed that the previous pastor had left them. We agreed that a Biblical look at betrayal and abandonment would be a good start.Read More »Don’t Leave–Transfiguration Sunday

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

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

Beginnings: Baptism of the Lord, 2012

Genesis 1: 1-5

January 8, 2012

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

Fort Worth, TX

Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher

 

What with the ongoing concerns about the end of the world so often dominating Christian conversation, we often forget that Christianity is not about endings. It’s about beginnings.

Even the so called “end times” are not about endings, per se, but beginnings. The “end times” also known in the Bible as “The Day of the Lord”—in other words, the day when God’s reign, which has always been reality even though we did not see it, is at last officially inaugurated. The “end times” are not the end of the world, as we are often taught—they are the beginning of the new, true world, the new heaven and the new earth.Read More »Beginnings: Baptism of the Lord, 2012

Now In Flesh Appearing

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

“Tell Us, When Will This Be?”–Everyday Apocalypses


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