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Be A Prophet: Pentecost

Prophesy

Acts 2: 1-21

What does “prophesy” mean? We tend to use it to mean “predict the future.” But actually that’s not what it means at all. The ancient prophets sometimes got their predictions wrong. Remember the story of Jonah? He predicts “Yet thirty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed.” He gets angry because in the end God doesn’t do what was predicted. Why? Because the people of Nineveh repented of their evil and turned to God, and so God showed them mercy.Read More »Be A Prophet: Pentecost

The Irresistible Gravity of the Grace of God

The Irresistible Gravity of the Grace of God

John 12:20-33

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

Probably the best known story about Jesus is the story of his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, before He is about to be arrested, tried, and executed. Jesus knows what’s coming, so he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. As Mark tells it, Jesus “fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

After he prays though, God has shored up his confidence, and Jesus goes to his sleeping disciples and says, “Awake, the hour has come.” And right then Judas comes leading a mob to capture Jesus and take him to the high priest.Read More »The Irresistible Gravity of the Grace of God

St. Stephen's Resurrection Windows

Sin: Off Target

 

Off Target

by Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

Ash Wednesday 2015

2 Corinthians 5: 20b-6:10

I’ve only shot a firearm once, when I was pastor of my first church in Virginia. It was not AT one of my parishioners, but WITH one: one of my deacons, Don Herring, was a retired Navy firearms instructor. He took me out to his private firing range out in the woods to fire a musket–Don and his wife were big Civil War re-enactors as well. He showed me the complicated loading process, which involved ramming the powder, wadding, and ball in exactly right, and in the right order. He pointed out that to this day they’re finding old muskets on Civil War battlefields loaded with unfired balls stacked up on top of one another, from panicked troopers loading their muskets incorrectly.Read More »Sin: Off Target

If

If
By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
September 28, 2014

Exodus 19: 1-7

“If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can… watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools…”
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), “If”

The children of Israel wander in the desert, led by a crotchety, opinionated, and often glorious man. He tells them about a new god, named Yahweh, who is actually the true God, and who has been their savior and protector, leading them out of slavery in Egypt, defeating the Egyptians, feeding them and finding water for them in the wilderness. And now they come to Sinai, and now they will meet this god. It sounds promising: a personal relationship with God.
Read More »If

Is God With Us?

On the Shoulders or On the Rock

Exodus 7: 1-7

If you’ve been following the story of the Exodus so far, then it will come as no surprise to you that the children of Israel wandering in the desert are complaining. This time, they want water! Once again Moses is on the spot. But God reassures him. Strike the rock with your stick, and water will come out of it. What God actually says, is: “Here, I stand before you on the rock at Horev. You are to strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people shall drink.” Moses does what God says and the people drink. And Moses calls the place Massah and Meriba, “testing” and “quarreling,” because of the contentious questioning of the people, who wondered, according to scripture: “Is God among us, or not?”[1]Read More »Is God With Us?

Jacob Fergus’ Senior Sermon!

 To Listen to this Sermon, click here -> http://sermon.net/ststphnfw/sermonid/1200034839

Turn and Walk In

By Jacob Fergus

May 12, 2013

Senior Sermon, Youth Sunday

John 13: 1-17

Revelation 22: 12-17

 

Jesus Christ, Savior of the World, affirms his role on earth: “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.” This attitude is rare for Jesus, who, when facing Pilot and certain death, did not confirm his stature. Following the washing of feet Jesus chooses to take this momentous step in order to make a stern point: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you…no servant is greater than his master.”Read More »Jacob Fergus’ Senior Sermon!

Don’t Be Afraid: God Loves You

 To Listen to this sermon, click here:  http://sermon.net/ststphnfw/sermonid/1200034601

We Are Risen Indeed!

Matthew 28: 1-10

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

Easter Day, 2013

 

Holy Jesus, I hear God’s mighty “Yes!” in your Resurrection. You invite me to live also, and I want to say “Yes!” to you. Take me out of the tomb that imprisons me: lead me into the morning of new life, and walk with me wherever your love may lead.

Peter Storey, Listening at Golgotha

 Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary,” probably Mary the mother of James, go to the tomb on Easter day, and what they aren’t expecting– is Easter.

They are expecting to find a tomb guarded by soldiers. They expect to find a great stone rolled in front of the grave. They expect to find Jesus in there, even more dead as He was a couple of days before.

Read More »Don’t Be Afraid: God Loves You

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

Seeds and Soil

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Mark 4: 1-20
September 30, 2012

The most bizarre thing about the farmer in the parable of the sower is that she throws the seeds anywhere, just willy-nilly, like she doesn’t care where they land. So some seeds land on the path, some in rocky soil, some in thorns. And of course, some lands in good soil, and thrives.Read More »Seeds and Soil