Matthew 26: 36-46
by Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
Maundy Thursday, 2013
Jesus prays for something we’re all too familiar with. He prays that God change a situation. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.”
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)
Matthew 21:12-17
Isaiah 1: 12-17
Cowtown Christ is a sermon series that reimagines the stories of Christ in the gospels as though they were happening today, right here in Fort Worth, dealing with the issues of our times. The Cowtown Christ is Jesse, a Mexican American woman with a group of followers she calls her Close Companions.
After this sermon, we’ll take a hiatus from this series for Palm Sunday and Easter, and for the next two Sundays, I will return to my normal preaching style. But following Easter, we will finish the story of the Cowtown Christ.
Jesse, the Cowtown Christ, turned to her close companions, those who’d followed her for some time, those who had been there at Oakwood Cemetery when they saw her revealed as some sort of supernatural being, and had heard a voice say, “This is my Daughter–Listen to Her.”
Jesse turned to them and said, “Who do people say I am?”
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
Why
By Rev. Dr.Fritz Ritsch
October 21, 2012
Job 38: 1-7, 34-41
Job is a righteous man of God whose children have been killed, whose wealth has been taken away, and whose health is shattered, and he wants to know WHY? Why, God, why is there suffering in the world?Read More »The Gospel According to Job: Why
Fault-Finding
By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
October 14, 2012
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Job 23: 1-9, 16-17
In our Old Testament scripture for today, Job longs to find a place where he can present his case for a fair hearing before God.
If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say. Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me. There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge.
As Gerald Janzen points out, this is a “utopian” vision, for Job’s point is that such a place is “utopia”—a word that means “nowhere.” There’s no place where he could get that fair hearing where God would see the error of His godly ways in causing Job to suffer so, and would amend them. You see, here in essence is Job’s complaint: It’s not fair. The universe is not fair. The good people often suffer and the bad people often prosper. Suffering seems to happen without any direct connection to whether somebody deserves it. His complaint is that he thought that we live in a moral universe, and it turns out apparently we don’t.Read More »Is It Job’s Fault–Or God’s?
Din Torah
By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
October 7, 2012
World Communion Sunday
Job 1:1, 2: 1-12
Yaffa Eliach, a highly respected Jewish historian who is herself a survivor of the Holocaust, tells the story that in 1979, she was a member of President Carter’s Commission on the Holocaust. The commission, who would ultimately lay the groundwork for the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, had visited sites of countless atrocities and collected stories from Holocaust survivors. After visiting Auschwitz, the commission held evening services at the ancient Rema Synagogue in Cracow, Poland. In the middle of the worship service, “Miles Lerman, a former partisan and sole survivor of a large Jewish family,” stepped forward, banged his fist on the bema, the pulpit, “and declared that he was calling God to Din Torah—summoning God to court!” Read More »God on Trial
On a recent Tuesday, a group of 15 students, ranging in age from their 20s to their 80s, were gathered around a table in St. Stephen’s Eastminster Room. They were comparing the Book of Job in the Bible to Archibald Macleish’s brilliant poem/play JB. How did Macleish’s post World War II rewrite of the biblical book that asks why God allows suffering give us insight into Job? How did they differ? The discussion was lively and insightful. At the table were a varied group–a faithful older lady who is a dedicated volunteer, a PCUSA missionary, a young man who teaches English at a high school, a middle-aged administrator on his lunch break, an older couple, one of whom is in a wheelchair, and a formerly homeless woman originally from the Bahamas. The energy is palpable.Read More »Tuesday Bible Study
By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
August 26, 2012
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Ephesians 6: 10-20
John 6: 52-71
As a pastor I’ve seen a few folks die. And yet, because of their faith they are still alive. One is remember is Alice, a dear lady from my last church, who had for years been a hard worker for the church, generous, hospitable, kind. She came down with cancer, and the most difficult thing for her was the realization that she could no longer “do” as she once did. She became very anxious about the state of her soul; how could she please God if she couldn’t “do” anymore?Read More »Shield Aflame
By Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Proverbs 9: 1-6
August 19, 2012
The book of Proverbs depicts Wisdom as a respectable woman, who prepares a beautiful table and invites you to feast with her. In contrast is “the foolish woman,” who “sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high place of the city, to call passers-by who go their way: ‘Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
The contrast is simple. It makes sense. Wisdom invites you. Foolishness tempts you.Read More »Wisdom–Proverbs 9: 1-6
