Themes
Glory hidden in the ordinary • Presence over performance • Freedom from expectations • Obedience • Communion • Identity in Christ • Spiritual courage • Fear • Striving • Faithfulness • Ambassadors • Priests • Agents of redemption
Loosen our grip on fear and cowardice and striving, and deepen our grip on Christ.
Scripture reading
John 1:14 John 2:1–11 2 Corinthians 4:6 2 Corinthians 5:17
This call to worship1 takes us to Jesus’ first miracle. It wasn’t a dazzling performance. He was simply present, showing up in the ordinary. We can confuse human value with human production. It sounds like this, “Look what I can do!” or “Am I good enough?”
At Cana, Jesus shows us that glory isn’t about delivering an impressive outcome, but just (i) showing up as who we are—and (ii) just letting God’s presence transform the ordinary.
John opens his gospel with this: The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory— the glory of the One and Only Son, full of grace and truth. And then he goes on to tell us about what embarrassingly unfolds in an ordinary moment in Cana. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee… When the wine ran out, Jesus said, “Fill the jars with water.” They filled them to the brim. The master of the feast tasted the water now become wine… This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. And Paul wrote this to the Corinthians: For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.
Prayer
Quietly glorious, humbly hidden, powerfully near, Father in heaven, You haven’t found us like a buyer hunting for bargains. We are not products awaiting a transaction. Instead, You meet us as the Living God. You meet us as the Son who shows up at our ordinary table, in our ordinary moments. You meet us as the Spirit who fills us as ordinary jars. You meet us as the Father whose glory is… love poured out… in the ordinary. We confess that we commodify ourselves and others. We chase applause. We protect our reputation. We calculate our worth in outputs and outcomes. And in the end, we haven’t shown up. We haven’t been present. But at Cana, You unmasked all the hustle. You revealed Yourself as glory, hidden in service. You revealed Yourself as power that doesn’t need a spotlight. You revealed a kingdom that transforms what isn’t, instead of tossing it aside. Father, form in us the courage to wake up, to show up, to stand up— to be present as the persons You are remaking us to be— to be present not as performers, not as approval-seekers, not as people afraid that we won’t measure up. Form in us the courage to show up, instead, as Your sons and daughters, as adopted, wanted, and named by You, as heirs of Your kingdom, as chosen and never forsaken. Form in us the courage to show up as those who are in Christ, already raised with Him, and already seated with Him in the heavenly places, Form in us the courage to show up as those who are ambassadors of Christ, priests in Your service, agents of redemption. Form in us the courage to to show up as those who are free, not enslaved; as those who are forgiven, not condemned; as those who are named and beloved, not evaluated. Free us from the tyranny of all the expectations we cannot carry. Re-center us only in obedience: in knowing Your will, in walking with You, and in trusting that obedience is enough, that it is all we need. Train our eyes to see the hidden radiance of Christ: in the kitchen clean-up, in the late-night shift, in the diaper change, in the awkward apology, in the grocery line, in the work no one notices, in the small “yes” that no one claps for. Take the “water” of our ordinary lives— our work, our study, our caregiving, our leadership— and, by Your transforming presence, make it wine for the joy of others. Not spectacle, but substance. Not transaction, but communion. Take our ordinary lives, which You have already assumed in Christ, and show us how You have made them signs of Your grace in a broken, broken world! Father, let Your light shine in our hearts today— the light of the knowledge of Your glory in the face of Jesus Christ. As we worship, loosen our grip on fear and cowardice and striving, and deepen our grip on Christ. Make us a people who value others over our own performance, who value showing up and being present over production, who value being faithful over fearful. In the name of Jesus— the One who turns our scarcity into celebration, who reveals Your glory in humility, and who makes all things new —Amen.
1
A call to worship given to the small assembly of Christians that gather in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, September 21, 2025