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Loving A Whole God

To Listen to this Sermon, click here -> http://sermon.net/ststphnfw/sermonid/1200046902

Loving a Whole God

Luke 7: 36-8:3

 Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

 “She is a sinner.” Well, we know what that means. Prostitute, right?

Well, maybe. But the definition of “sinner” could have been so broad as to include a great swath of behavior we wouldn’t even think questionable in our culture today. Divorce. People who live together before marriage. You know. Normal people.Read More »Loving A Whole God

Chapter VIII: The Cowtown Christ Comes Back!

John 20: 19-29
By the Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

John, Peter, Joanna, and Anna traveled with the hearse to pick up Jesse’s body at Eagle Pass. When they arrived, they had to pass, once again, through reporters and distraught crowds. Jesse’s pale, slightly bluish body was arranged on a metal morgue table, covered by a sheet from the chest down, over which could be seen the “y” incision made by the coroner.Read More »Chapter VIII: The Cowtown Christ Comes Back!

Chapter III: The Cowtown Christ Throws A Party At Billy Bob’s

Isaiah 55: 1-3

Revelation 19: 4-9
John 2: 1-11

The Cowtown Christ is a series of sermons about what it would be like if the Christ of the gospels came to modern Fort Worth. The story is entirely imaginary, though many situations are real to our local community.

The Cowtown Christ is Jesse, a young Hispanic woman who has begun to build a following in the community with her message that the City of God, la Ciudad de Dios, is in Fort Worth, that God’s presence is here, and that healing for the community can happen, if we believe.
……………………………………………………..

By this point, Jesse had a fair following, but three regulars were her central group—those she called “mis compañeros cercanos—my close companions.” They included Peter, the former gas company exec who was working at the iPhone store when she met him; John, the suburban mega-church pastor; and Joanna, a Fort Worth police officer who Jesse knew from her days working with the homeless. Joanna was one of a couple of FW cops assigned to the East Lancaster area specifically to work with homeless youth. Youth are especially vulnerable on the streets, and often are there because of difficult family situations. Many of them are gay, as was Joanna herself.Read More »Chapter III: The Cowtown Christ Throws A Party At Billy Bob’s

Chapter II: The Cowtown Christ Gets Her iPhone Fixed

The Cowtown Christ Gets Her iPhone Fixed

Isaiah 61: 1-3

Romans 3: 21-26

Luke 5: 17-26: 

Then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed… When Jesus saw their faith, He said [to the paralyzed man], “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, “Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”…Jesus answered them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk?’ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralyzed man—“I say to you, stand up, take your bed, and go to your home.” 

 And immediately [the paralyzed man] stood before them…. Luke 5; 17-26, edited.

 

The Other Fort Worth

A few years ago former Fort Worth city manager Charles Boswell started talking about “The Other Fort Worth”—the Fort Worth where the economy wasn’t developing, where the jobless rate plummeted, where violence and crime were high, and where the dropout rate from school was the worst. He was challenging people to think about the other side of the coin, and he always emphasized that for Fort Worth to be truly successful, “The Other Fort Worth” needed to succeed as well.

It was a vision for what the Bible calls SHALOM, the health and wholeness that God wants for us all. For any community to be healthy and whole, then everyone needs to benefit.

Read More »Chapter II: The Cowtown Christ Gets Her iPhone Fixed

All Things New

Revelation 21: 1-6

All Saints Sunday

All things new.

That’s what we believe as Christians.

A new heaven. A new earth.  Everyone of our loved ones who has died in the faith, possibly a whole lot of others, maybe even everybody, made completely new. You and me, made completely new.Read More »All Things New

A Personal Journey, 8: God’s Kingdom of Forgiveness

A Canterbury Tale

By the end of my sophomore year at Hampden-Sydney College, Inter-Varsity, our official campus fellowship group, was becoming more exclusionary and judgmental. There were standards that brooked no room for questions or disagreement. I was increasingly frustrated for my friends in IV who had questions, or were troubled in their souls, or who didn’t toe the fundamentalist line, or who weren’t quite pretty enough, cool enough, or secure enough in their faith to fit the IV model. Don’t get me wrong, there were many good, faithful people in IV–but the tenor of the group had become increasingly “Us against Them”–us against the “liberal religion professors,” us against the fratty boys, us against the Creeping Religion of Secular Humanism. Us against the world.Read More »A Personal Journey, 8: God’s Kingdom of Forgiveness

The Sermon I Preached After Last Year’s NEXT Church Conference

The Presbyterian Church “NEXT church” conference is in Dallas at the end of this month. I found last year’s first NEXT con inspiring and educational. This is the sermon I preached on my return. It was Transfiguration Sunday.

The Vision Glorious

1 Peter 1: 16-21

March 7, 2011

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

Fort Worth, TX

Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher

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.

The PCUSA and denominational Christianity in general, appear to be at a crossroads. Our authority is no longer taken for granted. Indeed, the authority of the Christian message seems to be universally questioned. Both the church’s message and the forms we use to convey that message seem quaint and outdated, or worse, oppressive and exclusive. We seem both unwilling and unable to change with the times. Are we a dinosaur? Jurassic Church, hopelessly outdated and unable to survive the speeding, earth-shattering impact of the comet of change that’s transforming the world around us?Read More »The Sermon I Preached After Last Year’s NEXT Church Conference