Gary Fritsch

Today's Scripture In the last few weeks, I have been thinking a lot about what the Apostles and early Christians went through to establish what we, if we are honest with ourselves, take for granted today. A printed Bible, a Liturgy with readings and song and prayer, Sacraments. In the Acts of the Apostles, just before the Apostles decide to ordain Stephen and his companions as deacons to help with distribution of food, the Apostles recognize that they have a very important functions in those...

Today's Scripture Often times, as Christians, we get a sense of what Jesus says, and we build our belief on that. The Father has sent me, God loves you, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, love God with all your heart, your mind, your soul and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. All of these are beautiful and central teachings of Jesus. We would do well to follow them. But Jesus also says: ‘if you love me, you will follow my commandments’ and ‘make disciples…teaching them...

Today's Scripture There are two fairly common human experiences that this morning's Gospel brought to mind for me. When I mention them, they are going to seem completely unrelated, but they are closely tied to one another. The first is this - you meet someone and they claim to be a fan of a particular team, but they can only name one or players in the lineup. Certainly, we would all see through this and discern that they might like the idea of being a fan of the team but hardly qualify as one...