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Seeds–Matthew 13


Matthew 13: 1-9, 13-16

July 10, 2011

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

Fort Worth, TX

Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher

 

When we lived in rural Virginia, when Margaret was pregnant with our first child Sara Caitlin, we decided to plant a vegetable garden across the street from the manse, right next to a cow pasture. We planted watermelon, cantelope, tomatoes, squash, beans, lettuce, and corn. We’d climb over the barbed wire fence and get cow pies to fertilize it. We were especially proud of our corn, because all the corn farmers around us told us we’d never grow any. The problem, they said, was that we’d planted one row of corn, and you need two rows to cross-pollinate. So when we grew a row of healthy, juicy corn, they were a bit put off. But in reality, we grew that corn because of them. A quarter mile away in any direction there were acres and acres of corn. The wind blew, the bees buzzed between rows of corn.  And ultimately our little row of corn was the beneficiary. So really, our row of corn was growing thanks to all those farmers who told us the corn would never grow. They were pollinating our corn but they didn’t know it.Read More »Seeds–Matthew 13

Holy Chutzpa

Genesis 22: 1-14
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher

The Tuesday Bible Study has focused on Genesis and just recently we did the story of Abraham taking Isaac to be sacrificed. One of the participants said, “Why all of a sudden is Abraham so docile, so unquestioning? What happened to the guy who negotiated with God over whether to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? If Abraham was willing to negotiate with God to save such wicked cities, why wouldn’t he negotiate with God for his own son?”

It’s a good question.Read More »Holy Chutzpa

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

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

John 10: 1-10

 

“Little lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Thou art called by His name.”

That’s the opening line of the opening poem of William Blake’s book, Songs of Innocence and Experience. The lamb represents childlike innocence; perhaps it’s a child talking to a lamb, as children do so often talk to animals. And the child is telling the lamb what she’s learned in Sunday school: that we Christians also call Jesus “the lamb.” She thinks that’s pretty neat, and that the lamb ought to think it’s neat, too, so she tells him: “thou art called by His name”—the name of the one who made you.Read More »Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

Easter Sunday: Hide and Seek

The other day our daughter Sara Caitlin the jazz singer was in a panic before a performance. She’d lost her music. This was because her car is filled up to the brim with clothes, food containers, and books and papers from the last six months of school. She was convinced the music was lost forever and that she was in a world of trouble. She went and looked in her car a dozen times to find it, no luck.

Fortunately, her hero father saved the day. Read More »Easter Sunday: Hide and Seek

Maundy Thursday: By His Wounds We Are Healed

About eight years ago, my father-in-law, Cecil, had to have a liver transplant. He was in his sixties, and not in the greatest of health, and was lower than many on the donor list. It wasn’t entirely clear that he would get a liver. At the last minute, a healthy liver became available—that of a young woman someplace in Virginia who’d died in a car accident. She’d had the generosity of spirit to check “yes” on the “organ donor” portion of her Virginia driver’s license. This unknown soul did not know who Cecil Camlin was, but she saved his life. By her wounds he was healed.Read More »Maundy Thursday: By His Wounds We Are Healed

Vision Glorious

2 Peter 1: 16-21

This past weekend I attended the “Next Church” conference in Indianapolis. I always feel l have to explain that this isn’t the “Next Church” as in, “What’s the next church I’m going to be pastor of?” I’m not going anywhere. No, it’s “Next Church” as in, “What is the next church we, as a denomination, are becoming?”  The conference brought pastors, elders, and seminarians together to discuss the future of the PCUSA. It was exciting but also sobering.  I’ll start with why we are asking the question in the first place.Read More »Vision Glorious

Looking At the World When Life is for Free

Micah 6.1-8 Acts 3.1-16 Luke 10.25-37

Listen to this sermon

The movie The King’s Speech is well worth your going to see. It tells the story of a man who is struggling to reclaim something that has been taken away from him by circumstances against which he was powerless to defend himself. He is struggling to reclaim something that is intrinsically his because he is a living human being. That something is his voice, his ability to speak without stammering. His voice was taken away unjustly. He wants it back.Read More »Looking At the World When Life is for Free

Receive And Ye Shall Be Asked

20110123-ReceiveAndYeShallBeAsked

Isaiah 9: 1-4
I Corinthians 1: 10-18
Matthew 4: 12-23
The Good News is this: On a land pitched in darkness God has shined a magnificent light. People who were far away from God have been made beneficiaries of God?s abundant grace! That is in part the message that Jesus takes to the people of the Galilee region. It?s an affirming, positive message to a people who feel like they are the very dregs of society. Because that is how Galileans felt. They felt like the poor step-children of God. Have you ever seen the plaque Mark Scott has in his office that says, “God loves everybody, but I?m his favorite?” In those days, Galileans felt like “everybody.” The people who lived in Jerusalem and out into Judea were definitely God?s favorites.Read More »Receive And Ye Shall Be Asked