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Martin Luther King

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 Beatitudes: Extraordinary Virtues

 

 

 

 

To Listen to this Sermon, Click Here -> http://srp.alldigital.net/B5B1FC01/12667319/audio/20011632_32kbs__usrsiteshtmlB5B1FC011266731901protectedmediabankSemon20140202N.mp3.mp3

Matthew 5: 1-12

 

Over the front entrance of Westminster Abbey, across the street from the Parliament building in downtown London, are statues of ten 20th Century martyrs, installed in 1987. Some you may have heard of, some not: “Maximillian Kolbe from Poland, Manche Masemola from South Africa, Janani Luwum from Uganda, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, Martin Luther King, Jr. from the USA, Oscar Romero from El Salvador, Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Germany, Esther John from Pakistan, Lucian Tapiedi from Papua New Guinea and Wang Zhiming from China.” (http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/maximilian-kolbe)Read More »The Beatitudes: Extraordinary Virtues

Pilate vs. Jesus

The Cross and the Crown

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX

March 24, 2013
Palm/Passion Sunday
John 19: 1-16

Biblical scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan claim that what we call Jesus’ “Triumphal entry” happened at the same exact moment as, on the other side of Jerusalem, at a more prominent gate of the city,  Pontius Pilate made his ceremonial entrance into the city. Pilate was the Roman procurator of Judea, the man appointed by the Roman emperor Tiberius to govern Judea. Judea was Rome’s most unruly province. Every year, at Passover, Pilate came with a procession of soldiers in full military regalia, to back up the already strong presence of the Praetorian Guard that was always stationed in Jerusalem. He came because it was during Passover that the most Jews were present in Jerusalem and that any agitation against Rome would most likely take place.

If Crossan and Borg are right, then Pilate’s entourage was being imitated, and mocked, at the other end of the city by a lowly Galilean peasant carpenter, riding a donkey, greeted by excited revelers, laying out coats and waving palm fronds in deliberate parody of Pilate’s entrance to the city. (Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Final Days in Jerusalem. HarperCollins Paperback, 2007, pp. 2-5)

Read More »Pilate vs. Jesus

The Miracle–Mark 6: 34-44, Part 2

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
July 22, 2012
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX

Reporter Charles Duhigg tells the story of a US Army major in the town of Kufa, in Iraq, who decided to do some behavior modification. He

had analyzed videotapes of recent riots and had identified a pattern: Violence was usually preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza or other open space and, over the course of several hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle and all hell would break loose.Read More »The Miracle–Mark 6: 34-44, Part 2