Litany for Speaking Out

By ChatGPT o1 model from: First They Came by Martin Niemöller 

Leader: When they came for our trans siblings, I did not speak up
People: Because I’m not trans, and it felt distant to me.

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: When they came for immigrants, I did not speak up—

People: Because I assumed they’d only take the “bad ones,” not parents or co-workers I knew.

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: When they came for the poor, I did not speak up—

People: Because I thought I’d always be able to work.

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: When they came for those who needed Medicaid, I did not speak up

People: Because I wasn’t sick or old, and thought I never would be.

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: When they came for journalists, I did not speak up—

People: Because social media told me all I wanted to believe.

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: When they came for people of color, I did not speak up—

People: Because I was told Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion of others hurt me

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: When they came for women’s rights, I did not speak up—

People: Because I am not a woman, and could get care to save my life

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: When they came for voting access, I did not speak up—

People: Because my own right to vote felt secure.

Leader: God, forgive our silence and grant us courage to speak.

Leader: Then, when they came for me,

People: There was no one left to speak for me.

Closing Prayer 

God of justice and mercy,

We confess that we have not always acted with courage.

We repent of our indifference

  toward those whose struggles felt distant.

Stir our hearts to empathy,

  and strengthen our resolve to stand with one another.

May we learn to speak out for the vulnerable

  and uphold the dignity of all.

In Your gracious name we pray,

Amen.

Charge to Spanish Springs Congregation

Given on the occasion of the installation of the Rev. Jeff Rumble as pastor of Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church on January 26, 2025.

Recorded Audio Version Available Here

Beloved people of Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church, God has called you together as a community of faith, not for comfort or convenience, but for bold witness to Jesus Christ. You are the Church of the risen Lord, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ alone as your cornerstone. In a world filled with competing voices, shifting loyalties, and false certainties, stand firm in the truth of the gospel.

I charge you to affirm that Jesus Christ alone is the Head of the Church. No earthly power, no political movement, no personal agenda can claim the Church’s highest allegiance. Christ alone rules through His Word and Spirit.

Reject lukewarm “thoughts and prayers” political religious theater that stays safely distant from real suffering and authentic faithful compassion. For we believe our nation will be judged by how we gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty,

How we welcome to the stranger at our shores and in our fields,

How we clothed the fire victims and those left naked by the slow burn of poverty,

How we recognized and respected those imprisoned—whether by iron bars or by the unbendable norms of society. and by how we stopped the shooting of schoolchildren and saved their actual lives rather than saving the imagined gender purity of their sports teams. (Matthew 25:35-40)

I charge you to reject every force that distorts the gospel or seeks to shape the Church in its own image. Faith is not a tool for power, the Church is not the servant of the state, and worship is not entertainment for the bored. The Church belongs to Christ—there is no popular vote, no recount, no charges of politics, no violent attack, no magic hat, no racist chant that changes that in Christ, we have the totality of our being. We are for Christ. The Church is not for us—it is for Christ, to spread His love to all people.

Reject the misuse of faith by those who wave Bibles to serve their own power rather than seeking God’s guidance within it. God’s guidance is in the Bible—not as a prop for personal or political gain, but as a witness to the living Word that calls us out of ourselves and into justice, mercy, and humility with all.

Resist spreading false news in social media, at office desks, and around family dining tables—news that divides, distorts, and encourages fear and hate instead of the Gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ that unites the diverse in mutual love, shared experience, bold faith and bright hope.

I charge you to reject despair, complacency, and every false claim on the Church’s loyalty. Christ is victorious, the Church is alive, and the gospel still transforms the world.

I charge you to stand firm in the call to be a people of courage and grace. Welcome Jeff, not as one who carries this ministry alone, but as a shepherd among you, a fellow servant in Christ’s mission.

Support him as Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses when he grew weary, as Deborah and Jael did what Barak could not do alone, so that together, the people of God may remain steadfast in the work to which Christ has called them. (Exodus 17:12-14; Judges 4:8-9, 21)

I charge you to refuse the temptation to make ministry the work of one person. Proclaim the gospel, care for one another, and serve the world in Christ’s name. Make Jeff neither drag the unwilling forward into mission nor race to catch up with the zealots.

Walk with Jeff as a shepherd among the flock, not ahead in isolation nor behind in pursuit, but hand in hand in the Spirit’s leading, following the voice of the Good Shepherd together.

I charge you to hold fast to the hope that is in Christ. Trust the Spirit’s leading, listen for God’s voice, and stand firm in the truth of God’s Word. Spread the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ, which brings light to the darkness, hope to the weary, and life to the world.

Now, I charge you to go—in courage, in hope, in faithfulness. Love one another, support your pastor, serve the world, and trust the Spirit’s leading. And may the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, now and always.

This charge was reworked over 2 hours with ChatGPT, The Theological Declaration of Barmen, and the scriptures quoted.

Not My Job

Not My Job

Not My Job
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

Audio from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service January 26, 2025
for ZOOM with Lee Vining Presbyterian Church

edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine.

  John 2:1-11

 Sermons also available free on iTunes

Should the church be run like a business?  People tell me that, throughout my career in the ministry in 40 years, and they come in, you know, church has to be run like a business.  And they usually don’t know that I have a business administration degree from Grove City College with cum laude.  So they think this is news to me, God bless ‘em.

And I was wondering, you know, when I’m in a more festive mood, with is almost always, I admit it is a problem, I ask them, well, if church is run like a business, what’s its product?  I mean, what is it selling?  I mean, that’s basic business that you know your product.  What’s a product?  You know, it gives them pause because, I mean, you all think of that, I ain’t going to put you on the spot because, you know, it’s like being in the front row at a comedy club, you know.  You know you’re going to get picked on if there’s only, like, six of you.  So don’t answer out.  I’m not putting you on the spot.

But what would you say is the church’s business?  What’s the product?  What are we making?  Oh, you’re going to – you’re going to – you’re, yeah, are we making Christians.  That’s one of the A-plus answers.  I would go A-plus on Christians, disciples, yeah.  You know, others would say, you know, Laurie, others would say, well, you’re making worship services.  You know, some people say that.  Or, well, you’ve got to maintain the building, you know.  Or some people would say, you know, you’re feeding the hungry, and Matthew 25, and the thirsty, and you’re doing that stuff.  And I don’t know if you’d get agreement from everyone in a room about what the product is for the church, if it was run like a business.

And then it gets even more complicated because then you’ve got to say, okay, we’ve got a product, maybe.  You would say, well, who’s our customer?  What’s our target audience?  Who are we working for?  And I’m sure Laurie knows the answer.  It’s always God.  God’s always the correct answer in any children’s message or sermon.

Well, some people say God’s the customer.  Okay.  Other people would say, well, the people who pay the bills.  You’ve got to keep them happy.  You’ve got to keep the people happy who’re paying the bills or you don’t have a church.  They’re the customer.  Well, sure, God, but you know, oh, I’ve got to keep the money folks happy.  Some people would say that.  Some people say, well, it’s the church board.  I mean, I don’t know if anybody would say that.  Maybe one or two would say you’ve got to go with the – or maybe a couple would say the pastor has to be happy.  That’s rare, but that could happen.  I’m sure that’s happened.  You know, who are you trying to please?  Who are you working for?  Who’s the customer?  That’s a difficult one.

What if they went beyond that and said, okay, well, now, who owns the business?  You know?  Who?  Is it a nonprofit?  That’s problematic in a church, if you don’t have profits.  If you do, well, what’s the business?  What is that customer?  Who owns it?  Who is in charge of it?  I mean, the Presbyterians have gone all the way up to the Supreme Court about who owns the church.  And the Supreme Court, way back, oh, ‘70s, said, well, that PCUSA owns the church, but please make it more clear in your constitution.  So we’ve been – we struggle with that in reality of who owns the business of the business?  That’s important, too.

Well, you know, we shouldn’t be surprised that we have these questions and answers, and that we can’t get consensus and move around because even Jesus Christ had trouble, as we saw here, skipping over the dynamic of why you’re calling your mother “women,” that doesn’t sound good to us English-speaking ears that you go “woman.”  But maybe it’s better in the Aramaic, I’m hoping.  But Jesus had some troubles about his jobs and where he was doing and what he was doing it for.  And, you know, a mother, the mother, you know, you don’t want your mother coming up to where you work and saying you’re not good at your job.  I mean, that’s not good.  That’s a bad day right there.

And, you know, and I don’t know, you know, can you imagine, I don’t know if we can be Jesus, but you’ve got these world-changing powers.  You want to change the world for good.  You want to help people, you want to get love all around, forgiveness and all that, and your mom wants you to solve the lack of wine at a three-day blowout party for people you don’t know.  You know, Jesus Christ is fully human.  I can see him being a little upset about that one.  And not just, you know, hey, bring a bottle of wine.  I mean, come on, it’s a party, bring the wine, what are you?  You know, we’re talking multiple gallons of water turning to wine.  We’re talking 20 to 30, what is it, six times 20, help me out.  It’s over 100 gallons of wine.  That’s a lot of wine.  Of course, you know, Mary didn’t say, hey, go get 100 gallons.

Is that Jesus’ job?  I don’t know.  We struggle with that in the church.  We’re struggling right now about what is the church’s job.  I mean, folks will say let’s get politics out of the church, doo to doo to doo, you know, they want to say that.  And you know what, I’ve noticed over the years, I mean, I’ve been around a little bit, politics just kept getting wider and wider and wider.  You know?  It used to be you could go buy craft supplies and not worry about politics.  Now you’ve got to say, well, that one’s Republican and that one’s Democrat.  Politics are just freaking everywhere.  You know, and people wear them, you know, as part of their clothing, their politics.  It is politics, politics, politics, politics everywhere.  And it affects – and it’s not just politics.

Politics affects our lives, affects our health, affects our neighbors, affects ourselves, affects our family.  You know, we say, well, it’s just politics.  Well, no, man, it’s morality.  It’s reality.  It’s how we live.  It’s how we structure society.  It’s how we help one another.  And even now we saw right now that a bishop, you know, we don’t have bishops.  I don’t know.  Sometimes that’s good; sometimes it’s bad.  I don’t know.  But we don’t have bishops.  But that’s like, you know, up there, you know, big hat, in charge of church and stuff.  And the bishop in the church, okay, that’s kind of a big thing, bishop in the church there actually makes it a cathedral when the bishop’s in the church.  So the bishop in the cathedral saying a sermon, you know, the bishop in the cathedral in a sermon, you think that’s religious.

But some people say, oh, no, that’s politics.  They can’t say this.  They can’t say that.  They’ve got this to do.  They’ve got this to do.  They’ve got to be in this box.  They can’t be this.  And oh, my gosh, I want to tell you about how the bishop in the cathedral preaching a sermon should be.  I say get the politics out of the church.  I say get the politics out of my life.  My life belongs to Jesus Christ.  Don’t be telling me I can’t follow Jesus Christ because you don’t like the politics.  And don’t be coming into a cathedral and telling the bishop what he can say in their own pulpit.  No.

We have trouble with jobs, with what is a job.  I mean, even today we have trouble.  You know, we say we might get upset about oh, my gosh, he should have said into this.  Oh, my gosh, that’s not her job.  Oh, she shouldn’t have made the wine.  I mean, I’m sure that there were some people, well, Jesus, you know, you shouldn’t be making that much wine for drunk people.  I mean, that is a reasonable criticism.  I mean, Laurie can help me out here, but I’m thinking that’s enabling.  I mean, that’s like master-class enabling right there.  These drunk people need more wine.  I mean, the steward flat-out said they were already drunk; you know?  And why do drunk people need more wine, I don’t know.  And people could criticize that, and I don’t even think that would be political.

But what is the job of the church?  It’s something we’re going to be struggling with, I’ll tell you.  We’re going to be struggling with that.  And, you know, between ministers, and it’s especially a struggle because, you know, when you get in a ministry you can sort of say, good, the ministry will figure that out; you know.  But when it’s just y’all, you know, you’ve got to figure out what is the church.  Does the church do this?  Does the church do that?  Is that our job?  Should we have services even though none of us lives in Lee Vining and we’ve got a lot of weather?  Should we do that?  I mean, it’d be really nice to have a minister decide that.  But you don’t, so you’ve got to decide that, oh, you know.  So what do you do?

Now, let me change gears a little bit.  Palisades Fire.  Have you heard of it?  Palisades Fire.  Now, I don’t know it you know about Palisades.  Kind of a rich people place.  But, you know, they have a severe homeless problem.  They’ve got a lot of folks there that are hungry, don’t have housing, don’t have food.  But the disaster is a disaster.  I can’t imagine losing everything you own.  I can’t imagine that.  There’s been loss of life in the double digits, I think it’s up to 23 or so.  Whole neighborhoods washed out.  I mean, one of the Presbyterian execs lost her home down there, one of my friends, Wendy.  I can’t imagine that.  Everything, you look around, everything gone.

Another one of the ministers at the Palisades church, he had time to run down – you’ve got to read it.  It’s on the PCUSA website, that Palisades fire, and was in the Presbyterian newsletter last week.  But the pastor had enough time to run from the church down to the elementary school, grab his kids, because there was just cars everywhere, nothing was moving.  There’s parents trying to get their kids.  Had enough time to go down, get his kids, take them back out to the car, and flee the church.  He didn’t take anything out of his office, and the church burned to the ground.  I can’t imagine, what a tragedy.  I want to say that, that it’s awful, it’s a tragedy, it’s a horrible thing.  Suffering is real.  And that’s one of the things the Church knows.

But I do want to tell you about jobs.  When we’re talking about jobs, for at least a little while, for at least a couple weeks, there’s no hungry person in the Palisades.  There’s no one hungry.  There is no hunger because World Food Kitchen rolled in there with the food trucks.  They rolled in, and they said anyone that’s hungry, come and eat.  And we’re not checking your ID.  We’re not seeing where you’re living.  If you’re hungry, come and eat.  We’ve got food.  Come on down.  And good food, too.  And they got stores there that are open, and they’ve got brand new stuff for babies, and clothes, and if you lost something, come on in and don’t pay.  There’s no charge.  The donations are there, and they’re here for you to pick up, and God bless.

So we can do that.  It takes a fire.  It takes a disaster.  It takes a horrible thing.  Now, in Mary’s case the disaster was we ran out of wine at a social event.  Okay, a little bit of a disaster.  But the disaster that we have here that wiped out entire communities was enough to say, oh, yeah, we can feed every person and not charge them.  We can clothe the naked and not charge them.  We can do that.  So when you say to me, oh, well, we can’t do it, you know, we’ve got to run like a business, and we’ve got to have profit and loss, so we’ve got to have [indiscernible] and negative, yeah, I’d say, well, yeah, I understand that, I mean, I did get an A in accounting.  But for at least a couple weeks we did it.  We could do it.

We could stop making billionaires and now trillionaires.  We’ve got a couple people on the way to trillionaire, hoo-hoo.  We could quit making them.  And we can start making people that are fed and housed.  We can do it.  I don’t want a fire to wipe out a whole community to figure out how we can be Christians and make sure everyone’s got fed, clothing, and housing.  I’d rather not.  I’d rather we just decided, yeah, this is something we could do.  And you know, it’s not just the church’s job.  I mean, we say, well, the church ought to do that.  They should have a lot of money and social things and all this.  You know, Matthew 25, where it talks about the naked, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry and visiting the imprisoned and all the things that folks say, oh, I don’t know if we can afford all that.

It doesn’t say the church is going to be judged by that.  It doesn’t say that individuals are going to be judged by that.  We would like it to, oh, my gosh, that’d be so much easier.  You know, oh, I’ve done good.  I’m okay.  I give things.  I’m helpful.  No.  It says the nations will be judged.  The nations of the world line up and are judged.  Our Bible says, our Savior says, our gospel good news says right there in black-and-white, that the nations will be judged by how they take care of one another.  So if you take comfort like I do, well, I’m a good person, I don’t hurt anybody, I’m nice, uh-oh.  The nations are judged by that.  

Well, that’s pretty heavy, Christy.  My gosh.  No wonder they only let you in once a month.  Hey, let’s talk about the servants.  Did you notice the servants?  It’s hard.  They don’t have any speaking parts.  I mean, that is just plain unfair right there.  Because you look at the Scripture, the servants are doing all the work.  They’re going, they get ordered over here, I mean, there’s this Mary person.  Who’s she?  She’s not part of the household.  Mary has to go over here, and he goes, talk to the stranger; you know?

And here’s the thing, you know, if I’m a servant, you know, and I’m thinking this, I’m not saying it out loud because servant, you know.  But I’m thinking, you know, we’d have the wine if this guy didn’t bring all his big burly Galilean fishermen to drink all the wine.  You know, I’m thinking that was an issue.  I don’t think they planned for that.  You know, his whole entourage comes, I mean, I’m thinking, those are some wine drinkers there, buddy.  You know?  And so makes sense to talk to this guy, do what this guy says.  And they’re saying, oh, okay, I guess we’re servants.  I guess we do that.

And he goes, go fill up those big old honkin’ jars.  I mean, you know, it’s like 55-gallon drums, if you can imagine.  Not quite that big, but, you know, roll them around and fill them up with water.  I mean, who knows where that water is?  Could have been, you know, a couple blocks away; you know?  Lot of work there.  They do all that.  And they’re thinking, this guy’s nuts.  Why is he giving water?  We’re out of wine.  We should be going around and getting some wine, and now he’s having us do this busywork and then go do that.  And then they go, they bring that.  And then Jesus says, “Go take the water to the chief steward to inspect for wine.”  They go, what craziness is this?  They’re going to yell at us.  This is ridiculous.  Why are we bothering the stewards?  I don’t want to get involved.

And the guy, the steward said, you know, this is really good wine.  And, you know, the servants are going, “Crazy white people,” you know.  What?  What?  We put that in there.  It’s water.  We know.  And they go, oh, yes, it’s great wine.  And they tell one another, you know, should we say something?  Should we tell them?  No, we shouldn’t say anything.  I don’t want to say anything.  We’ll get along just fine.  And then says the disciples believe.  I think the servants just thought he was crazy, crazy folks.  But, you know, where are the servants?  You know?  You know, he says, go do whatever Christ told you to do.  Even though it’s crazy.  Even though it can’t possibly work.  Even though we know better.  Even though we know it’s going to fail terribly.  Go ahead and do it anyway.  Go ahead and do it anyway.

What if Jesus says go over to Palisades and feed all the hungry over there?  Oh, that’s not going to work.  I can’t possibly do that.  That’s ridiculous.  Go do it anyway.  That’s where we’re at.  You know, we’re not around, sitting around saying, oh, let me think about what Jesus should be doing, what the job of the church is, and where are we going, and what’s our profit and loss, and what’s our five-year plan?  What’s our objectives, you know, specific measurable attainable and time-related.  What should we do?  It’s to follow Jesus and do whatever he tells you.  That’s our job.  That’s our job.  If we do that, Jesus will be revealed, and people will believe.  Amen.

Not My Job

Lee Vining Presbyterian - January 26, 2025

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Welcome

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.

SONG  I Could Use A Little Church Right Now

TobyMac Drops ‘a Lil Church’ Official Lyric Video from tobyMac on GodTube.

Prayer of Confession:

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.

or go to https://77da2f07.churchtrac.com/give

 New Testament Readings:  John 2:1-11

 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.

Message – Not My Job  < Click for recording

Story about Presbyterian Pastor when the church burned down.

Presbytery newsletter about fires

World Central Kitchen

SONG  I Sing a Song of the Saints of God

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.

- Liturgy made with the aid of ChatGPT

This Little Light of Mine

This Little Light of Mine

This Little Light of Mine
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

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.

  John 1:1-18

 Sermons also available free on iTunes

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.

This Little Light of Mine