Abides
Abides
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey
Audio from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service January 15, 2023
at St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Carson City, Nevada
edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine.
Sermons also available free on iTunes
Well, it’s 4:00 o’clock somewhere. Why is that in the gospel reading? Why is it important for John to tell us that it was about 4:00 o’clock, it was at 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon? What? What? Why do we care, John?
Now, John is – it’s a strange thing for John because John is, can we say it, he’s chronologically challenged. He’s not a time guy. I mean, we’ve got Matthew, we’ve got Mark, and we’ve got Luke. And they say things happened this way. And then we got John said, oh, it went all over here, craziness. All over here. Crazy. I mean, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, one year, they’re done. Jesus done. Over here John, three years. This guy’s not about the timekeeping. You know, Fitbit, all that kind of – nothing. Why does he say 4:00 o’clock?
Now, you might say, well, you know, he’s about light and dark and coming into the light, you know, and going out of the dark, and there’s light, and the times of day are emblematic of the lightness and darkness of the day. Well, what’s 4:00 o’clock? What crazy time zone is there kind of light and dark change at 4:00 o’clock? Not even the craziest daylight savings get us there. And so I look at this, and I’m reading, okay, they’ve got the spirit, and they go and get Caiaphas and all. And he goes, it was about 4:00 o’clock. What? Why does he say that?
Another thing that is going to be John is that he uses a word called ”μένω” (men-o). It is used about 40 times, and over half the times of in the New Testament that it’s used, half the time is in the gospels of John and the letters of John. He loves that word. And the word is in here three times in this scripture. And it’s translated different ways. It is “remained” when the holy spirit descends like a dove.
And then it comes also in kind of a throwaway line in that when Jesus asks a question, you know, “What do you seek?” you know, why don’t they say answer that question? You know, like oh, we seek the four spiritual laws. Or we think the theological ramifications of the Eucharist, you know. Why don’t they say that? They’ll say no, they say, “Rabbi, where you stay?” Men-o. That word is a big word for John. It’s one at the feeding of the 5,000. Feeding of the 5,000, there’s no food, suddenly there’s a bunch of food, everybody eats, everybody’s happy, it’s, you know, like Thanksgiving. They’re all full. And Jesus brings the crowd down, you know, really sucks the energy out of the room when he says, “Yeah, that’s good food, but get the food that men-o, that endures, that stays, that remains, that abides.”
John also likes that word when he talks about how to come to faith, how to be in faith. It’s faith about abiding. And remember it goes, “He who abides with me, I abide in them.” Same word. I abide in them. And John also says wherever the spirit abides, that’s where you can come to faith. It’s a big word. A big word in John. Abiding. Staying. Now, that one word, that one concept has several different meanings in our culture.
So several different meanings in our culture. And one of them was demonstrated in the classic film which please don’t watch on my recommendation, there’s a lot of cursing in it, is The Big Lebowski. So let’s take a look. “The Dude abides.”
Now, Sam Elliot character there, only named “The Stranger,” tells him “Take care. I know you will.” And Jeff Bridges’ character, Lebowski, The Dude, says “The Dude abides.” Now, what does he mean by that? Abides had several different readings, not only in our scriptures, but also in today. It could be you abide by the law. It could be obey. I obey. I abide by that law. I abide by that.
And it could also mean usually in the negative sense that the things you put up with or not, you know. Oh, I just can’t abide by someone who is constantly sniffling instead of using a tissue. I just cannot abide by that. There’s that kind of abide.
There’s also – doesn’t that bother everyone? Am I the only one? No? That bothers everyone; doesn’t it? Okay. So, yeah, abide is also, in a more positive sense, an abiding memory; you know? We talk about the memories of childhood, vacations at the lake, continued to abide with him throughout his life. So there’s that kind of abiding. And there’s also the kind of abiding where it’s a staying, it’s an enduring. He abided by her throughout her illness. Where do you abide? Where do you stay? Where do you live? Where do you keep your soul? The abiding. Several different kinds of abiding.
Remember that 4:00 o’clock thing I was talking about earlier, you thought I forgot about? What about that? That’s really the place they talk about abiding with Jesus, and right before they start bringing in other people to him. Peter, yay, Peter. We like Peter here. So abiding, it was 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon. What’s 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon in your life that abides? What time abides with you? I’ll tell you a time for me: 2:30 p.m. 2:30 in the afternoon. July 12th, 1980, I got married. I remember Dr. Paul F. Bauer. I was okay until he turned to me and said, “We just have to wait for the chimes, then we’re going in.” The chimes were at 2:30. That’s when I started abiding as a husband. And when I took the vows, Bette Lynn said “obey,” ha ha ha ha. So, but we took vows for each other and cherished one another, and that was the beginning of abiding together as husband and wife. And that was about 2:30 in the afternoon.
10:10 in the morning. Not just the way people set clocks that look pretty, but 10:10. That’s when my daughter Rachel was born. I remember looking at the clock. That’s when I became a parent. And that was – she’s less than 40. But that was a moment that abides. That abides with me. So I’m thinking that when John includes the 4:00 o’clock thing, it was when the disciple says, yeah, I remember the day that Jesus says “Come and abide with me. Come and see where I am abiding. What are you seeking? You’re seeking to abide with me.” It was 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon. I remember it was yesterday.
What does it mean to abide altogether? There’s definitely staying, and definitely enduring, and definitely some kind of toleration and putting up with, a little bit of obeying, not in terms of I have a command, but to get along with you I’m going to abide. And boy, has that been a challenge in the last few years, to abide with our relatives. Oh, my gosh, and friends. It’s been – and Facebook, oh, my gosh. Who can abide by Facebook anymore? It’s so difficult.
When I left, tried to leave the ministry for a few years to go work on computers, I was sucked back into a church, and my boss, the pastor there, John, was – not his real name – John went through a very traumatic divorce. There was actually violence against him, and he was staying in my basement for a while. It was a mess. And one of the times I got a call from the Christian educator at the church on Friday night. In case you’re wondering, that’s not accepted practice in the Presbyterian circles. We don’t usually call at Friday night about something in the church. And she called up and said, “John’s been arrested.” Oh? And that’s also something that doesn’t happen in Presbyterian circles much, the pastor’s been arrested. And she says, “I can’t go there. I don’t want,” you know, because of the divorce, she didn’t want to go down there and the soon-to-be-ex-wife go crazy about the other woman, whatever she was thinking. And I said all right.
So I go on down. And I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t hang out with people that got arrested. I don’t know. Went to the little police office in our little town. And they wouldn’t let me in the door. But I said, “Hey, I’m looking for John. He just got arrested. I don’t know where he is.” He goes, oh, yeah, yeah. And he went in, and he brought out the court order that he violated. He was supposed to stay, I don’t know, 50 feet away from her and all those things that he’s supposed to do. He was definitely less than 50 feet away her. He was definitely on the porch saying, “Why can’t I see my kids? Why are you keeping my kids from me?” And that was definitely within 50 feet. He definitely did that wrong. And they called him, they hauled him off
And the police officer was arguing with me about the 50 feet and that he did something wrong, and he should have been arrested. And I wasn’t there for that, you know. I said, “John’s my friend, and John does stupid things. Here’s one of them. This was stupid. He definitely violated that, and definitely you should have arrested him. He was in the wrong. But even though he does stupid things and violates court orders, he’s still my friend. And I’m here trying to figure out how to help my friend. How can I help my friend?”
So the cop put the arrest report away, and he said, “He’ll be down at the detention center, and his arraignment is about in an hour. He’ll probably get out, and he’s going to need a ride.” I go, “Thanks.” So went down there, and they decided they could maybe trust the local Presbyterian pastor to behave. So they did let him go, and I picked him up. That’s abiding. I mean, he was wrong. The cop was right. You know. He shouldn’t have done that. But he’s my friend. And we put up with each other. We abide.
Some people think Christianity is, you know, when I made a decision for Christ, when I said the four spiritual laws, or when I confessed my sins, or when I came up to the altar, the Presbyterians were having a little fight about whether or not we can come up to the communion table. We don’t have altars, a big stink in the [indiscernible]. So people say this, you know, that made me a Christian. Okay. If you think that, that’s fine. But it’s like a wedding, a marriage, the difference there. A wedding takes part in a specific time and place and location, and it starts and stops. And the wedding is over, but the marriage endures. The marriage abides. And there’s a lot of, you know, I will abide by that, or I will endure that. I will go with you through that. I will cherish you in sickness and in health. That’s all about abiding.
And the gospel writers and the epistles writers often talk about the relationship with Christ and the Church, which is us, the Church, is like a marriage in that we abide with one another, that we put up with one another, that we stick through with one another no matter what. “The Dude abides” I think means I get through it the best I can with the help of my friends. And isn’t that the faith? Isn’t that what God calls us to do? What are you seeking? I’m seeking to abide with you. Amen.