JP Horgan and Christy Ramsey photo by Robert Ramsey
Thanksgiving Potluck Prayer 11/27/2025
Gracious God, on this day of gratitude, we remember how strangers were once welcomed and fed on this land, and we give thanks for that spirit of generosity that still guides us.
Thank you for this food, and for every hand—near and far, immigrant and neighbor—that planted, harvested, prepared, and shared it.
Thank you for the freedoms we enjoy, the safety we know, and the blessings of this country.
Thank you for friends and family, for the community of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, and for John and Susan who hospitality brings us together today.
Calm our hearts, deepen our gratitude, and let this meal draw us closer to you and to one another.
Let’s take a look at Luke. Luke. This is not the story about gratitude. But it’s okay. I understand if some of you, if you want to, pick an off-ramp. We’ve going on the express route to the Kingdom of God. Some of you may not be up for the trip. I’m okay with that. If you want to take an exit route right here, take an exit, go over, you know hang out at the truck stop for a while, whatever you want to do. Look at your phone. No problem. Just say what the sermon’s about. Sermon’s about gratitude. You’re fine. No worries.
For the rest of you, the sermon is not about the one that came back in gratitude. The sermon’s about the nine, the nine who did what they were told. The nine who followed the great leader Jesus. The nine who followed the law. Yes, the law, Leviticus 14. Now my favorite Leviticus is 19, if you want to know. But 14’s okay. You know. But if you go, if you get Leviticus out, you know, go over into 19. Read that, too, because that’s the best.
But Leviticus 14 talks about, if you are a leper, how to be clean. It is very entertaining reading. It involves two birds, one of which you kill. It involves shaving your entire body, head to toe, not once, but twice. It involves standing outside in the cold as sort of enforce home – it’s like a little light torture in the Bible to get clean. It takes about a week, a little over a week to eight days. It is the law. That is what the law says you do. Nine did it. Nine complied. Nine did what they were told to do.
Jesus told them, “Go show yourself to the priest.” And that’s not just, “Hi, Priest. How you doing?” It’s that whole thing, Leviticus 14, light torture, standing outside getting shaved, killing a bird, other sacrifices. Bleah, the whole thing. Nine of them did it. Nine of them complied. Even though they didn’t have to. What a mind-blowing thing. You don’t have to follow the law and obey Jesus. What a mind-blowing thing. Because I submit to you this time in America is not the time where we need more sermons about gratitude. Gratitude’s fine. Gratitude’s a nice thing. Attitude of gratitude. I like the rhyme.
But what Americans need now is consideration, reflection, and faith that might, just might lead you to disobey. Now all you that are upset, I told you, you could get off earlier. We have here a time where it says Jesus is okay with disobeying. He’s okay with breaking the law. He’s okay with not following scripture. And that wasn’t the Old Testament back then, that was The Testament. That was Bible. And Jesus is okay with that. In fact, not only is he okay, He asked where the other nine were. How come only one disobeyed me? How come only one broke the law? Where are the other nine? Wonder if Jesus is saying that now? Where is everybody?
Faith makes you well. Not following the law, not even doing what the leader said. Faith makes you well. He doesn’t condemn the nine that followed the law and did what they were told. I mean, come on. I mean, they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. Come on. He seems to be okay with being inclusive, with being okay with diversity, among responses. And he seems to be okay with that half-breed immigrant that shouldn’t be there, not following the law, but still having faith and still doing the right thing.
Now, when we as Samaritans, we just think about, oh, Good Samaritan, teddy bears and rainbows and unicorns. We like the Samaritan. No, no, no. That was the cursed. That was a putdown. That was telling them they were half-breed unfaithful heretics that should not – good people do not talk to, that you do not even walk through their territory. Did you see it was in between the places that a good Jew did not go. He was illegal. Wasn’t supposed to be there. And Jesus praises him. Yow.
Christy, did you come this week so that we’d be happy when Pat comes next week? I told Pat, “Don’t worry, buddy, they’ll be happy to see you.” He goes, “Thanks, Christy.” But let’s go back, back into time, to a simpler, lovelier time, back to the time of the ‘80s with Reagan in the White House. Oh, what a wonderful time. I want to tell you about not that people, but remember back then, back then the Russians shot down a Korean airliner. Boom, out of the sky, killing everybody. Remember, you can look it up, the families brought on the boat, the children crying for the father. Waves.
It was a tense time. It was a worrisome time. What are the Russians going to do next? What are we going to do in response? There’s a film, a documentary, it’s on YouTube, “The Man Who Saved the World.” And no, it is not about Jesus. “The Man Who Saved the World” is about Stanislav Petrov and his visit to the United States 40 years after the ‘80s. On September 26th, 1983, the computers in Serpukhov-15 bunker outside of Moscow, which housed the command center for the Soviet Early Warning Satellite System, reported U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles were heading toward the Soviet Union. One, then another, then another, then another, then another. Five nuclear missiles were detected coming toward the Soviet Union.
Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer. It was the protocol. It was the law. It was a duty. It was a patriotic thing to carry that on up to the command center, to call headquarters and say, “We are being attacked by the United States. They have launched nuclear missiles. Our satellites have reported. We checked the computer. The computers are right. They did not have visual confirmation because of the weather conditions. But the computer is saying yes. There’s nuclear warheads headed to you.”
According to the book, according to what’s called “The War Diary,” he is to call the headquarters. He is to call the headquarters and tell them what has happened so that they can respond in kind. There are 11,000 nuclear warheads ready to go, to blow up the United States. Make Hiroshima and Nagasaki a birthday candle. This is what Stanislav said 40 years later. “In the general headquarters all they have left to do is press a button. I fully understood that I would not be corrected if I reported it. No one would dare correct me. They would agree with me, and that would be it. It’s always easier to agree.”
We’re here today because Stanislav did not report the attack. He broke the law. He ruined his career. He lost his family. But he has no regrets. It was a fluke. It was a computer failure. It was weather, a weird weather thing. There are satellite orbits. There’s a whole Wikipedia page about it. But Stanislav didn’t know that. He disobeyed. He had faith that the United States wouldn’t do that. And he also knew that someone had to stop the chain of events into violence and into destruction and into ruin and into chaos.
And he knew that he was the one to stand up and say no. No, we’re not going to destroy the world. I’m breaking the law. I’m ruining my career. My family is not going to support me. I’m going to be estranged from all our friends. But I will not obey. I will not destroy. I will not harm innocents. I will not attack the enemies like I’m told. It’s always easier to agree. Thank god Stanislav Petrov decided not to take the easy way, but the hard and faithful way. His faith has made us well.
I was there when the Synod of Executive, Nancy Martin Vincent, was in danger of not having a prayer at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Reno, Nevada on Sunday, September 21, 2025. (one minute video)
After reading the following, I wanted to write to the company that profits from the interment of people without due process in the concentration camp called “Alligator Alcatraz”
Critical Response Strategies ($78.5 million)
The biggest Alligator Alcatraz contract, at least so far, is with Jacksonville-based Critical Response Strategies to staff and manage the prison camp. The DeSantis administration began removing records from the FACTS site shortly screenshots from this purchase order began appearing online — showing that taxpayers are paying some Alligator Alcatraz staffers as much as $187 an hour. Jason Garcia, July 20, 2025 Seeking Rents Substack
Sadly, the website of Critical Response Strategies gives this error when one clicks on “Our Leaders” on the About Us page:
Our Leaders page linked from About Us at CRS website
The CEO of Critical Response Strategies LLC is listed elsewhere as Will Adkins. They are located at: 6440 Southpoint Pkwy Ste 320 Jacksonville, FL 32216. There is a contact form on the website and the phone number is (904) 343‑3857 which seems to be Will’s voicemail.
As a Presbyterian minister in the PC(USA), I write to express deep concern over your company’s reported involvement in the construction of detention facilities in Florida—facilities which many in the public are describing as concentration camps due to their design, function, and treatment of law-abiding individuals held without due process of law.
While I do not write on behalf of my church or denomination, I speak from my conscience, guided by the values of justice, compassion, and human dignity.
I want to ask:
· Has your company informed its stockholders or investors that it is profiting from the construction of such facilities?
· How does your leadership weigh the ethical and reputational costs of participating in projects that may be complicit in the unjust treatment of vulnerable individuals?
· What moral framework, if any, guides your corporate decision-making in choosing contracts with such grave humanitarian implications?
These are not abstract questions. They touch the heart of what kind of country we are becoming—and what kind of companies will help shape that future.
As someone entrusted with spiritual and ethical leadership in my community, I urge you to consider the long-term impact of your work, not only on those detained but also on the soul of your company and its legacy.
I welcome your response and will share it publicly so that others may better understand your role and reasoning in these developments.
Rev. Christy Ramsey
I share the reply I recieve. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
UPDATE September 18, 2025: Leader page is STILL not found. No response.
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: The Lord is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear? Person: The Lord is the stronghold of our lives; of whom shall we be afraid?
Christy: Christ calls us forward, even when the path leads through risk and sorrow. Person: We will follow, not in fear, but in faith.
Christy: Come, People of God—gather beneath the wings of mercy. Person:We come to worship the One who goes before us in love.
SONG O Lord Hear My Prayer
Prayer of Confession:
Person – Merciful God, We confess that we often obey in fear rather than walk in faith. We let threats turn us inward, and we let worry silence your calling. We flee from risk instead of moving toward your mission of justice and peace. Forgive us for the ways we resist your grace. Gather us again under your wings, and teach us to mission in advance—to heal, to speak, to follow—even when the path is hard. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:
Hear the good news: God does not abandon us to fear, nor condemn us for faltering. Christ gathers us in love, forgives us in mercy, and sets us again on the path of peace. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Thanks be to God! Amen.
Sharing Joys and Concerns with Prayer and 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.
A Reading From The Greek Scriptures: Luke 13:31-35
31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Christy Ramsey
JP Horgan and Christy Ramsey photo by Robert Ramsey
