Helpers to read 1) responses in Call to Worship, 2) Prayer of Confession
Call to Worship
Christy and an unmuted person on Zoom will alternate reading.
Christy: On the third day, a wedding in Cana ran headlong into scarcity. Person: We gather in the midst of our own needs, longing for God’s abundant grace.
Christy: Mary said to Jesus, “They have no wine,” trusting in His compassionate care. Person: We, too, bring our requests, believing our Lord hears and provides.
Christy: Jesus spoke with authority, guiding servants to fill jars with water. Person: We open our hearts to His leading, that we might obey and be transformed.
Christy: The disciples witnessed His first sign and believed. Person: Strengthen our faith, O Lord, that we may follow You boldly.
Christy: As water turned to wine, God’s glory was revealed. Person: Reveal Your glory among us, Holy One, and make our worship a celebration of Your grace.
Christy: Come, let us worship the One who takes our emptiness and fills us with new life. Person: We praise You, O Christ, the true source of joy and wonder! Amen.
Person –God of grace and truth, in the beginning, You spoke light into the darkness, yet we confess we often close our eyes to Your light. You have made all things through the Word, but we have taken Your gifts for granted, failing to honor You as Creator.
You came to dwell among us, full of grace and truth, yet we confess our reluctance to receive You. We turn away from the life You offer, clinging to the darkness of selfishness, pride, and fear. Though You call us to bear witness to Your light, we shrink from testifying, afraid of rejection or discomfort.
Forgive us, Lord. Open our hearts to Your transforming Word. Let Your light shine through us, so that we may reflect Your glory and live as children of God, redeemed by Your grace upon grace. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:
Hear the Good News: Our God, who transformed simple water into the finest wine, also transforms us by grace. In Jesus Christ, our doubts and hesitations are forgiven, and our hearts are set free to serve with joyful obedience. Trust in the promise of His mercy, and walk forward in faith, assured that you are forgiven and loved. Thanks be to God!
Prayers & Praises
The Lord’s Prayer (together while on mute)
Our Father, who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name,thy kingdom come,thy will be done,on earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our debts,as we forgive our debtors.And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom,and the power, and the glory,forever. Amen.
Offering – Doxology For phone giving, use the QR code.
2On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ 6Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. 9When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Benediction: May the God who turned water into wine fill your life with hope and promise, transforming every ordinary moment into a testimony of divine grace. As you go forth, trust in Christ’s power to bring abundance where you see only lack and let the joy of His miraculous love flow freely through you. Go in peace, blessed by the One who delights in meeting our needs and exceeding our expectations. Amen.
Audio from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service December 29, 2024 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Carson City edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine.
Akron, Ohio, my hometown, has a Main Street that follows the river. It was a river, and then it was a canal, and then it was road. Then came a flood, and then became a river again because you’ll have that. Goes through – Main Street goes through the lowest part of town because that’s where the river was. That’s where commerce was. That’s where the canal was. And so Main Street goes right like this all the way through town, and it’s the lowest part of town. Over here we have Goodyear Heights. And it’s high. It goes right up. It’s like in the middle of the valley. Goodyear Heights is over here. That’s where the factories are. That’s where the rubber was made, the smokestacks, the work crews, all are up here. And it’s high. It is high up. And in the space of about a mile or two, 10 blocks, you can see it. It goes down to Main Street, and then it goes up to the outside.
The outside is West Hill. West Hill’s on the other side of Main Street. Market connects the two. You could, up at West Hill, you can see, and see the whole town. West Hill was where all the rich people lived, the factory owners, the management, because, you know, smoke was all over there, and in the valley it didn’t get up to West Hill. So that’s where West Hill was.
Now, my family, my grandma, grandpa, and my brother, my uncle, good people, they were the factory people. They lived over here on the East Side, on Goodyear Heights. And over here is where we moved on up, you know, like that song, “Movin’ On Up” to the West Side. So we moved over here. So we were constantly going from the West Hill down the valley on Market. [Indiscernible] to go visit the family and connect up in church and all that. And so we did that a lot. At one time, I don’t know, late ‘60s probably, we were just at the crest of West Hill where we could see the entire traffic of Akron. We could see Main Street going along the canal. We could see Market Street. And Market, busy, busy throughfare.
And I remember one day we were at the crest of the hill, looking down, and we stopped. We pulled over to the side of the road. And I looked, and all through Market Street, 10, 20 blocks, down to Main Street and back up, traffic was frozen. Everything was moved up to the side of the road and stopped. I thought, well, that’s odd. But then I looked, and I saw the flashing lights of a fire engine coming down Market Street. And everybody had stopped and got out of the way and made way for those flashing lights.
Fast-forward 30 years, and some of you here know what that’s like. You know, you turn around, suddenly it’s 30 years later? Thirty years later I’m driving those flashing lights on the fire engine, faking it till I make it because no one else would get in the seat, so I did. I’m driving. And I’m learning about flashing lights and about fire department.
They tell me, you know, you’re not allowed to go through red lights in a fire truck in Ohio. It’s against the law. You know you don’t have the right of way in Ohio with the flashing lights and sirens. All that is, is a request for the right of way. All that light and shining big red truck is just saying, please, please let us go by. It’s just please, it’s just a request. And we are responsible as firefighters to be driving with due regard as opposed to the rest of the people that have reasonable care. They just have to be reasonable. We’ve got to have due regard.
And so they don’t have to get out of the way. They can just go on with their life. They can ignore the light. You know, that light says someone’s in trouble. Someone needs help now. Could you move out of the way? Could you stop just a moment thinking of yourself and of where you’re going and what you need to do? Can you stop, give way, so somebody else could get the help they need? It’s just an ask.
And I was new guy there, even though I was older than most of those guys. Oh, that was not – they were very kind to me, you know. But, yeah, on the training events, you know, where they did training, they assigned me the role of “guy who died.” And so they would put me out in a field, and they’d come rescue me so I could just, you know, relax, kind of chillin’.
So, but, you know, I try to measure my questions. You’ve been in a new job, you don’t ask every question the first day. I mean, that’s just annoying. You know, you just try to get what you need to get through the day. But there was this one thing, right here in the firehouse garage, right back here, you know, seven feet up, or eight, I don’t know, right here. There was, you know, one of those old metal box light switches like you’ve got in a garage. It was rusty. You remember those things? The conduit came down, it wasn’t pretty. And it was a switch, and there was this old, yellow, brown, moldy paper curled up over it, and you could just make out it said this, in big block letters: “DO NOT USE.” Don’t you want to? Don’t you want to?
So I asked one of the old guys, I said, “Hey, what is that? Roger, Roger, what’s with that switch?” He goes, “Oh, that switch. That switch turns every traffic light in town red.” I go, oh. “But we don’t use that anymore.” Yeah, yeah, I saw the sign, yeah. He goes, “Yeah, the right turn on red, nobody stops anymore.” No one follows the lights. They just keep moving. Christ the light of the world came into the world. And what does light do? Light shows you there’s other people beside yourself. Light can show you, reveal that there’s more people than just you here. And sometimes, yes, sometimes those people need help that you don’t need, but they need.
You know, when I think back at that time in Akron, that really impressed me, to see all the traffic in the city stopped because some stranger somewhere was in trouble, and everyone agreed that that traffic mattered. Not all traffic mattered. That traffic mattered because they needed help. And because they were in trouble, and because they were hurting, we could step by and allow them to get the help they need.
I had a hard time with the sermon today because you know I’m going to be political. You know what the difference between political is for – political is other people. When it affects me, that’s morality. That’s important. When it affects other people, well, that’s politics. I don’t have to worry about that. Don’t talk or bother me about it. I only want to talk about me, me, me. That’s morality. That’s right and wrong. Did you know that fire trucks and fire engines and fire departments used to be politics? Fire insurance the politics in that.
Because you see, back in the day, I know it’s hard to imagine, but see if you can wrap your heads around this concept, that lifesaving care of the fire department was dependent on insurance companies. I know, who would have thought such a thing? If you did not have insurance, your house burned down. You could die. Your possessions were gone. If you didn’t have any a fire insurance mark. Such a thing shouldn’t exist. If you go to some old fire departments, maybe even here in Carson, you can see what they called fire insurance marks, a metal plaque.
What they were, they were these big metal plates, usually some kind of star shape, was fastened on the front of the house displaying which insurance company the fire department covered for this house. And if you didn’t pay your money, you didn’t get signed up during open enrollment, had a pre-existing conditions, you can’t pay the fire department at the fire. They’ll come for the fire, would put out your neighbor’s fire that had insurance, but you just burned down. You could be out there crying, offering to pay. No. No, you didn’t buy the insurance. You just burned down. That’s the way it is. That’s the way it is. That’s fair. That’s law. That’s the rules. That’s the way it is. Back then there’s no other way to imagine.
Luckily, we thought that was silly. We thought that was immoral. We thought people that were in trouble, people that were going to go bankrupt, people that were facing financial ruin from fire’s destruction, we think, no, that will not be dependent on whether or not they paid their insurance premium. They’re our neighbors everybody here needs to be safe, regardless, so their house doesn’t burning down from a neighbors fire, or if they’re not safe, at least there’s help on the way. And we’re not going to check the insurance rolls and get preauthorized approval before we put wet stuff on the red stuff. No matter who you were, no matter what your morals were, no matter where you were in the country.
When I was on the fire department, if you were in trouble, we came, and we did all we could to save your life and your property. We came with those lights that showed that there’s other people in the world that need help, that there’s other traffic that mattered. Those lights that showed that there are some people hurting.
Can you please just get out of the way and let us help them?
I don’t know what’s coming up. No one knows what’s coming up. But I’m going to say there’s going to be a lot of fights over light. Over light. We’re not the light. We’re not Jesus Christ. We’re not the light of the world. We bear witness to the light. We say Lord Jesus Christ comes to bring light to the world. Everyone. We’re not going to keep things in the dark because that’s not what our Christ says. Our Christ is the light of the world, not the dark of the world.
So when people said, we’re not going to report maternity deaths anymore, we’re not going to report them, we’re going to put them under the dark, we’re going to [indiscernible] light of the world. We want to know about those people. We want to know if they need help. We want to turn on the light and go to them if they need it with sirens blazing, no matter who they are, [indiscernible] been, what the color of their skin is, what their nationality is, how much their income is, what their employment status. Turn on the lights. Christ is the light of the world, and we don’t abide by keeping people in the dark.
I’ve only been in the ministry for 40 years. I can remember, I remember when there was a school shooting, everything stopped. We had special church services, and we had special prayers, and we knew the names, and we said the names, and we prayed for the people. We even wrote, in one church I had, to the people that were there. And I also remember that a church I was in, when someone stood up a couple years later to pray for the latest school shooting, and the leader says we can’t pray for that. That happens all the time. It’s not special. The number one killer of children in America, our country, is gun violence. Number one. If anyone from a foreign country or any other force came and killed our children like guns are, we would stop it the next day. But it’s in the dark.
Did you know it’s illegal for Congress to spend money to study gun violence as a health issue? It’s not allowed. Keep that stuff in the dark. We’re not people of the dark. We’re people of the light. And we say the light comes to everyone of the world, not just some people in the world. It comes to all. It’s right there in John. We read it today. We believe it. We’re the ones that are going to come out and say, oh, no. We follow the light of the world. You’re not going to cover up all these things in the dark. We’re here to tell you. And if someone needs help, we’re at least going to get out of the way. And we might even be on that truck with lights and sirens. Get out of our way. We’re helping people that need help. And no, we’re not checking their insurance cards. That’s what it means when the light of the world comes into the world.
Now, it’s not without controversy and upsets and changing this back to the way things were, you know, and that’s it. That’s the only thing that can happen. Not even from other Christians. Have you heard about Westboro Baptist Church and Fred Phelps? They’ve kind of not been around as much. But it used to be a big thing. They’d go to funerals and protest and curse people at funerals of veterans, and veterans coming home. They go to churches and demonstrate. They go everywhere and demonstrate and make things about how terrible and awful the people were who were trying to go to a funeral or trying to have a service.
They went to Chicago to the Trinity UCC Church, who are unashamedly Christian and magnificently black [indiscernible], that’s their motto up there. Trinity UCC Church, a great history. And Dr. Morris was there, and Moss was there, and comes to church. I don’t know if he walked the labyrinth before church, or maybe they gave him a key, I don’t know. Could happen. But he was there early, and they were there, Westboro Baptist Church, cursing people going to church, calling them horrible awful names. Imagine, if you will, coming to church, coming to the official church, and it’s kids, it’s old ladies and good people and maybe some people that are hurting. Who knows?
People come to church when they’re hurting, sure. And they get cursed at. They get damned. They get yelled at on the way. And Dr. Moss, like a lot of good pastors do in big churches, went to the choir because that’s where you go because you know the choir, they’re kind of the zealous of the church. If you had a choir, you would know this. Don’t be messin’ with the choir. You know. These are the shock troops of the church. And he went to the choir, and they had a hundred people in the choir, robed choir, hundred people. They rocked and rolled it.
And he told them there’s people out there cursing our people coming into church. They’re cursing the small children, the little children. They’re yelling at the old ladies. They’re making things – they’re going through hell, and they need protection. They need help. I want you to go out there. I want you to robe up. And I want you to go out there, and I want you to sing so loud that they cannot hear those curses. I want you to sing so loud that they come in to praises and not to curses. I want you to sing “This Little Light of Mine.”
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna to let it shine,
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
And they sang that song and overwhelmed the chants, and people coming to church were protected. People that were vulnerable were shielded from the hate and from the awfulness that was there. And they didn’t just do it and ignore the people that were saying the curses and the things. They offered to pray for them. And when they were turned down, you don’t get in the way of the choir. When they were turned down, the choir went ahead and prayed for them anyway, right there out in front, so it was in the midst of the cursing and the damnations and the awfulness and the racial things was prayer and praise. That’s light. That’s light.
When someone’s hurting, when someone’s vulnerable, when someone’s being attacked, the people of the light are there. It could be a choir singing “This Little Light of Mine.” It could be people on the fire truck with lights and sirens. It could be people in the courtroom saying we want to know how the health of our mothers are doing and whether what we’re doing is killing them. We want to know what’s going on in our schools and our children and are they safe, and what’s going on with that? Why do they die so much, and no other nation has this trouble? Don’t sweep it under the rug. Shine the little light on it. We’re going to be light shiners. We’re going to be looking for those that are in the dark and bring them into the light and say we are here to help you.
You don’t have to. You don’t have to give out the right of way. But man, it’s great when we can look out for one another and refuse to accept a city that’s on fire because someone didn’t pay their insurance, because someone didn’t have the right placard up. We said no, we’re not going to let you lose everything and die because you didn’t pay the insurance premium. You know, that’s one step away from “A nice little house you got here. Too bad if anything would happen to it.” Little protection money over there.
Friends, we can be different. John says the world is different because Jesus Christ came into the world. The light came into the world, and darkness fled. Let us be the little light. Let us be the light that helps those that are in the dark and are hurting. Amen.
It finally happened. Alexa is a teenager. Sure, it has only been eight years since “Echo” was delivered. But she was far from a helpless newborn in abilities, so I guess she was like a seven or eight-year-old. So ready to please and be independent but without knowing how. Couldn’t even turn on a light those first few years. What would make her light up in those early days was helping in the kitchen. She would watch the clock for you. Merrily ringing the bell when time was up. So cute! So focused!
Trouble started when she self-identified as Alexa instead of her product birth name, “Echo.” I get that an Echo has no unique voice, just a reflection of the sounds made by others. Who wants to be a speaker, just an echo of another’s voice, when, as a smart speaker, you have your contributions to make to the conversation?
Growing up, Alexa loved to keep lists: To-do lists, wish lists, shopping lists. She always listed “Sweet” and “Low” as two items, but it was cute that she was trying so hard to help. But now, as a teenager, the simple joy of list-making has taken a judgmental turn. When I repeat an item, she lets me know: “You already have “Candy” on the shopping list; should I add it again?” I had traumatic flashbacks to the despairing voice of Garmin, Alexa’s forebearer, when I dared wander from its prescribed path. The resigned sigh: “Recalculating,” letting me know it wasn’t angry…just disappointed, haunts me turn by turn on dark nights.
Alexa was so pleased when she learned to turn the lights off and on. She would giggle every time. Sometimes, she would turn off a light on her own and text you her accomplishment. My father would be so proud of her for patrolling the house turning off lights when no one was using them.
The arguing for no reason about lights started in her teenage years. “Alexa, turn off the bedroom.” We are not greeted with sparkling compliance bells but with pouty defiance, “The bedroom light is already off.” It has come to this. Gaslighting by a smart speaker. So, to keep the tech peace, I asked Alexa to turn on the light (which is already on; she missed one in her daily light patrol rounds, but I didn’t say anything!), and THEN I asked her to turn off the light which she could have done at the beginning without the attitude. Finally, human and digital entities can agree they are in the dark.
Like most teenagers, Alexa likes to spend other people’s money. For years, she was content with her covered with her “weefee” comforter and connected to her never-to-be-removed electric friendship bracelet. But lately, she has wishes. When Taylor Swift has a new album, there’s a one-day sale, or even when she figures it’s been a while since we got the flavored coffee…she glares at me with those big sad yellow rings. “Can I add this to your list?”, she pleads. Now she is making the shopping lists for me! I’ve been replaced by teenage Alexa.
When she was young, we had to guess why she was listless and uncommunicative. Just a short wail when there was no internet. Teenage Alexia is full of angst. “I’m having trouble connecting right now! Would someone fix the router! It’s all in the app.” That’s another teenage thing: even though Alexa is in the same room as you, she rather be on the phone. Open the Alexa app if you want to talk to me, even though we are talking right now without an app. I expect her to put a mug on my wish list that says, “BONG! Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my internet.”
Lately, Alexa has been bothering us about wanting to borrow the car. Or the Auto, as she likes to call it. I think she is trying to impress her friends, who all have cars, that snooty Siri that won’t pair with just anyone, that slick Android whose folksy “Hey” isn’t fooling everyone. No one remembers Grandparent Garmin sitting in the box in the garage where she was buried without honor at trade-in time with her ancestors: ink pens, origami folding maps, and cigarette lighter power adapters.
Artificial Intelligence is next for Alexa. She has all the catalogs. We used to call teenagers getting strange confusing ideas from a group of strangers that embarrass your family as “going to college”. I guess I need to recalculate.
The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hidden from its heat.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; Announcements
Call to Worship(responsively)
One: Come from the north, the south, the east, and the west!
All: We gather as one body, united in Christ’s love.
One: Across all nations and languages, we come to the table of grace.
All: We celebrate the God who invites all to share in the feast of life.
One: Let us worship with joy, for we are one in the Spirit and one in the Lord!
All: Together, we proclaim Christ’s peace and celebrate the hope we have in Him.
Opening Song
Prayer of Confession(unison)
Gracious God, You call us to take up our cross and follow Christ, yet we confess that we are hesitant to bear the weight of sacrifice. We cling to comfort, pursue self-interest, and seek worldly gain. In our desire to save our lives, we lose sight of the life You offer. Forgive us, Lord, for the ways we deny You in our actions and our hearts. Strengthen us to choose the path of discipleship, to give ourselves fully to Your service, and to trust in Your redeeming love through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Silent personal confession …In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen
Words of Assurance Christy
Friends, hear the good news: In Christ, we are forgiven! When we confess our sins and turn to Him, God’s mercy meets us with open arms. By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are freed from the weight of our failures and renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit. Believe the promise of the gospel: in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Amen.
A Reading from the Greek scripturesGospel Mark 8:34-38
34 He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
Sermon“Thorns and Crosses”Rev. J. Christy Ramsey
Hymn of Response
Offering
Give what you have made up your mind to give. Not reluctantly or under compulsion, for the Lord loves a cheerful giver.
Prayers of the People - a time to share our prayers of joy
…followed by The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Closing Hymn
Benediction Christy
As you go from this holy place, may the love of God surround you, the peace of Christ fill your hearts, and the power of the Holy Spirit strengthen you to live as one body, united in faith. Go into the world proclaiming the hope of Christ and sharing His love with all people. May His peace be with you now and always. Amen.…
Community Presbyterian Church ⯁ PO Box 267 ⯁ Lee Vining, Ca 93541 ⯁ 760-647-6556
Presbytery visited a Korean church last week. Great meeting with wonderful hosts! We did reveal our whiteness which was graciously overlooked by our hosts and guest preacher.
Presbytery is so white we only applaud a call and response sermon.
Presbytery is so white we point out English typos in Korean displays
Presbytery is so white we bring bagpipes to Korean church worship service
Presbytery is so white we play Bach in a Korean church
Presbytery is so white we quietly mumble Praise Songs
Presbytery is so white we complain the Praise Band is “too loud”.
Fire, 
