By Timothy W. Ross

• I Pledge Allegiance by Timothy W. Ross (1/10/2017)
  Second Sunday after Epiphany Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 49:1-7 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 John 1:29-42 These days our problems in the US seem endemic and intractable: the scars of war, trillions of dollars in deficits, violence in our cities, struggling schools, families falling apart, looming environmental catastrophe. But, like clockwork, every four years, The Great One comes to us like a gift from heaven. Next week we inaugurate a new president. We had such high hopes for our last president. He was good looking, cool, smart. He had a beautiful family. He read books. He shot threes. He spoke in comple...
• Loved for What We Have in Us by Timothy W. Ross (10/25/2016)
  Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 19:1-10 From Jerusalem, perched 2500 feet above sea level, it is all downhill to Jericho, 850 feet below sea level. That makes for a hot, muggy place, but Jericho is shaded by palm trees and watered by cool springs. Jericho produces the best fruits and veggies you’ll find anywhere. And Jericho has been around for a long time—at least 11,000 years. Jericho is a land flowing with milk and honey. That’s what the children of Israel thought when they emerged from the wilderness and marched around Jericho’s walls. Mark Antony thought so too. He gave Jericho as a gift to Cleopatra, tossing in Arabia as an afterthought. Cleo leased Jericho ou...
• God Calls People by Timothy W. Ross (8/18/2016)
  Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah 1:4-10 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17 I know, I know. There’s no one that pastoral types like me distrust more than someone who declares they are called by God to do this or that. Self-proclaimed prophets and preachers in church are a dime a dozen. Believe me, I am one! In an election year we have to make do with narcissists who tell us they are God’s answers to the nation’s pressing issues. Yet if you pressed me on the matter, I would be forced to admit that I too have been called by God. My real introduction to this passage came long ago when I li...
• Love = Obedience by Timothy W. Ross (4/21/2016)
  Fifth Sunday of Easter John 13:31-35 "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Commandments. Rules. Can’t live with them; can’t live without them. We scoff at rules. We chafe under the control of those who make them. We bend them and break them and try to explain them away. Sometimes rules seem out of date, senseless. Have you ever seen those lists of the nutty rules some states still have on the books? In Tennessee, it’s illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle. In Indiana, it's against the law to shoot open a can of food. In Kentucky, it's a crime to use a reptile during ...
• Transformative Worship by Timothy W. Ross (1/19/2016)
  Third Sunday after Epiphany Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Nehemiah 8:1-10 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a Luke 4:14-21 Today’s scriptures tell the story of two worship gatherings. Nehemiah describes a reboot of worship in Jerusalem by recently returned refugees from Babylon. We don’t know if this account describes a typical worship experience, but let’s hope so. The gathering took place at the city gates. Ezra, surrounded by fellow priests and Levites, processed through the throng, carrying the sacred text. After years of exile, God’s Word would be heard in Jerusalem. Ezra climbed onto the wooden platf...
• Nightmares of the Rich by Timothy W. Ross (10/6/2015)
  Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 10: 17-31 Stacey Elizabeth Simpson remembers the night she first read Mark’s account of Jesus and the rich man. She was seven, tucked comfortably into bed, quietly reading her Bible when she heard Jesus thunder: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” She slammed the bible shut and ran down the hallway to her sleeping mother’s bedside. “Mom!” she called, “Jesus says that rich people don’t go to heaven!” “We’re not rich,” said her mother, “Go back to bed.” “But I knew better,” said the grown-up Stacey. “I knew I had all I needed plus plenty more…the littl...
• Revolutionary Danger by Timothy W. Ross (9/9/2015)
  Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Proverbs 1:20-33 James 3:1-12 Mark 8:27-38 “Why doesn’t God answer my prayer? Why is my life so hard? When will things get better for me?” This week we are confronted with the difficult possibility that God’s primary reason for existence may not be to meet our every need, to make us happy, or give us what we want. The disciples began to learn that lesson at Caesarea Phillipi. Caesarea Philippi is a site of incomparable beauty and longstanding political turmoil. Known today as Banias, or Panias, this once Syrian, now I...