sheep – St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

What to Do When Jesus Leaves–John 6: 1-15, 30-36

by revfritz
08/01/2012

By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch

John 6: 1-15, 30-36

July 29, 2012

St. Stephen Presbyterian Church

Fort Worth, TX

Last week (and the week before–someone this morning commented that anybody who preaches the same passage three times is bound to get it right eventually!) I preached on this same story as it’s told in Mark. I pointed out that though the disciples advise Jesus to send the crowd out to get food, Jesus says no. He knows they’re sheep without a shepherd, and he has compassion for them, because he knows that what they really need only he can provide. They need the assurance of God’s love and the spiritual nourishment of staying together as the Beloved Community, united by their certainty that God loves them. These are things only Jesus can provide, and He provides them.

Then the Gospel of Mark says, Jesus “immediately” sent the crowd one direction, the disciples another, and himself left to pray. (Mark 6: 45)

He was the glue that held them together, but then He left and exploded the crowd after all, the very thing He’d not wanted to do at the beginning.

What do you do when Jesus leaves?

THE NINETY-NINE AND THE ONE

by revfritz
11/20/2011

Rev. Dr. Warner Bailey, Preacher
Ezekiel 34.1-24 Psalm 100 Ephesians 1.15-23 John 10.11-16
November 20, 2011

Before I go any further, I owe you a word of full disclosure. You may remember that you were told prior to the reading of the Old Testament lesson that what you would hear would be coming from the New Jerusalem Bible. If you were following the reading from your pew Bible, you were reading the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The Jerusalem Bible comes from the work of scholars who are part of the Eccole Biblique in Jerusalem. The Eccole Biblique is an internationally respected school of biblical study founded by French Roman Catholic scholars. I chose the Jerusalem Bible over the pew Bible for today’s text because of what the Jerusalem Bible says God will do with the fat sheep when the new shepherd comes in judgment and salvation. The Jerusalem Bible says that the shepherd will watch over the fat sheep. The watching over is part of the overall plan to save the entire flock. Your pew Bible says that the savior-shepherd will destroy the fat sheep. Watch over or destroy. Those are pretty big alternatives.Read More »THE NINETY-NINE AND THE ONE