AuthorRev. Craig Ross

Former Senior Pastor

The vibrancy of life here at St. Peter’s makes my service on our staff a joy and privilege. Visitation, teaching and preaching are the ministries that feed my pastoral identity, as together our staff and lay members share in our missional calling … Building a community of faith by God’s grace.

What if Luther Dropped in for a Visit

As Lutherans celebrate the 501st anniversary of what we consider the seminal moment of the Protestant Reformation, the question begs to be asked …. Is this whole gig still relevant? Are Lutherans still relevant? Does the pulse still beat in whatever spirit it was that drove Martin Luther to nail almost one hundred statements of…

Tempered Strength

If I asked you to list ten words that describe you, would “meek” be on the list? My guess is that it would not. It probably would not make a list of one hundred words you would compile. I’m not sure when I have last heard the word “meek” used in conversation. But it has…

Much More Than a Club

New Day Sermon PEntecost 22 We snicker at James and John for wanting to sit to the right and left of Jesus’ in the Kingdom of God. It seems immature and selfish … like children who form a secret club, so that they can exercise authority over others. The community into which Jesus invites us…

A Different Kind of Witnessing

We meet in the slightly chill air of an overcast morning … twenty or twenty-five of us. Most of us have come right from church service. We stand on a brick walkway or in the mulch or atop a few cement steps. Trees surround our gathering area, though not entirely. Those who pass by on…

Mushroom Grace

It seemed to show up in my lawn overnight and got very comfortable … very quickly. It wasn’t a miraculous arrival, but it seemed like it. It enjoyed a couple of days of hospitality, but was then banished to salad-bar fodder for the squirrels and other denizens of our unruly lawn, after I cut the…

Covenant or Legalism?

Traditional Sermon Pentecost 20 This is the look. (RAISE SCARED FACE MASK) Yes, this is the look every preacher gets on her or his face when they realize they have to preach on today’s Gospel Lesson from Mark. We get that look for a couple of reasons. First off, we recognize that the complexity of…

Disciplined Prayer

The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours. The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. We cannot attain or earn this righteousness of the kingdom of God: it is a grace that is given…. In this regard it would be proper to speak of “the…

A Cup of Water

pentecost 19 New Day Sermon Jesus challenges our desire to be surrounded by people who think like we do, by pointing to the simple gift of a glass of water. But there is so much more to Jesus’ teaching about community and the wide net of followers that God sees as his children, than we…

And It’s All FREE!

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) My grandson started kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. A lot has changed in the 25+ years since my kids started school … especially the lunchroom. Sammy can take the lunch special of the day,…

The Importance of Words

Words are important. I’ll say it again … words … are …important. In some ways, our culture tries to convince us otherwise. We obsess over YouTube videos … we covet our Snapchat photos and Instagram posts … and we can’t wait to see what our celebrities are doing through Buzzfeed and TMZ pictures and postings. …