Retaining Sin

Retaining Sin

Retaining Sin
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

Audio from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service April 7, 2024
at St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Carson City, Nevada

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

Acts 4:32-35 ⟡ 1 John 1:1-2:2 ⟡ John 20:19-31

 

Sermons also available free on iTunes

Welcome to Mirror Easter. Last week, who was here last week? No one. Okay, a couple people. All right. So last week, the varsity team was up front, and the spectators were in the pew. All right. So this week, the spectators are up front leading the service. You all coming here on the second Sunday of Easter? You’re the varsity team. You show up the second Sunday of Easter where the substitute for the substitute is leading the service. Ah, commitment. Thank you very much. That’s right, Christy has risen. Is that blasphemy? I don’t know. He’s not here. And we’re all surprised, just like, you know, the other guy. Okay.

I know every one of you read the scripture before you came to church today. You’re probably waiting for a doubting Thomas sermon. Those are great. I love those. Not having a church for a while, I’m always preaching second Sunday of Easter. In fact, I looked at the prayer book earlier. My marks from last year were still there. Second Sunday of Easter. And if you want to look at that sermon, Cathedrals and Measles, on the website ExtraChristy.com, go look at that great sermon, Doubting Thomas. Woo boy, good.

Not today. This is a varsity group here. We’re going to get a varsity sermon. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to take that little bitty crazy scripture that’s in the gospel. That you probably just went over, because I don’t want to think about it, but we’re going to think about it. You know the one? The one with your namesake, the Saint Peter one? If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. What in the world does that mean? Is there some kind of ginormous ATM? Can we log in on our web and say, I would like to deposit some sins, and I’d like to withdraw some sins? What in the world are they talking about?

Now some people say, well that means that, you know, if you’ve been gluttonous or wrath – oh, let’s read them off, I have my list here. Sermon notes: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth. So some people say that if you have any of those, you can get them forgiven. But why in the world would we want to retain them? Okay, maybe gluttony. Rest. What is this? This is a strange scripture on a strange Sunday. Bizarro Mirror Easter Sunday, where the varsity people are in the pews, and the spectators are upfront.

It only makes sense if you know that it is plural. That’s right, it’s not singular sense, not just you and me, itty bitty, 10 Commandments, four spiritual laws, kind of individual, you and me, God, we’re here, checklist, I got whatever I want. It is plural. If you all – I used to translate Greek, you all. I got in trouble in seminary all the time, and I argued with them. But if you all retain the sins, they are retained. And if you all forgive the sins, they’re forgiven. Okay, so it’s a community thing.

So we get along and get together like Presbyterians and have a committee and vote whether or not someone sinned? I don’t know. That doesn’t sound right, either. But I want to tell you something, this is John. This is the Gospel of John. We even got a little bit of 1 John over there. And for John, that list of sins, not sin, not at all. Sin is not individual moral failings. It is not characteristics. It is not individual behavior. That is not sin. Sin is when you don’t do what God wants you to do. And that’s your whole life. That’s not just in moments of temptation in front of that cookie drawer. Or special magazine. Or website. I guess I should update.

But for John, sin is corporate and communal. J.B. Phillips back in 1953 had a book that was really important when I was growing up called “Your God is Too Small,” and every now and then people rediscover it, and it blows their mind. But I want to tell you that it’s not just your God is too small, your sin is too small. We’re not talking about little bitty sins. This is the varsity group. We can handle it. We’re not talking about individual sins on individual Sundays and individual days. We’re talking about great corporate. And, you know, this makes more sense for 1 John. Did you listen to 1 John? Was anybody else upset? You are all sinners? What kind of scripture is that for church? You are all sinners. And you say, “Well, no, I’m not,” and it comes right back. And if you say you’re not, you’re a liar. Oh, I’m a sinner and a liar? How come we didn’t all get up and leave? Were you listening?

I’ll make it more homely. You’re racist. And if you say you’re not racist, you’re a liar. Now we’re getting some of the feeling back. I’m not racist. I don’t say the N-word. I have not fired anyone on the basis of their race or creed or color. I don’t have any slaves. I’m not racist. We’re back to that, are we? Back to the individual understanding of sin. Back to the me and God and nobody else. When it’s plural, when it’s corporate, when it’s John, and when things aren’t right in the world, that is the sin, not what any individual may do.

I had a good childhood and upbringing. Middle-class life. We didn’t want for anything. Had a big house. Even got air conditioning when it came in. That was a big deal. My parents both had college educations and good jobs. Their parents were able to work in Akron, Ohio, in the rubber companies and got good pay and good money so that they could send their kids to college so that I could have a better life. Well, what’s that about racism, Christy? My grandpa, Christy Ramsey, had to join the Ku Klux Klan to get a job at Goodyear. Because only the Klan members worked in the rubber company. You see the difference between I’m a racist and racism? I’m a benefit of that. I’m benefiting of racism. That got my family out of the West Virginia hollows and into colleges and nice middle-class home in the Highland Square area of Akron. See the difference? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t benefit from racism. John knew that. Now you do.  

What are we to do? What are we to do? We’ve got to quit thinking that sin is something we do in private. It’s just between me and God or go in a box and confess it, and we’re good to go. Because sin is communal, sins in society.

Let’s talk about my parents again. My parents both went to college. Books cost 10 bucks for their semester. Ten dollars. They went to a state school, a university school. Remember back then when the governments actually paid for higher education, actually supported higher education? It’s flipped now. Now the individuals have to pay and not the corporate. And now because it’s an individual choice they have to compete for students and get those out-of-state tuition bucks in there, so they have to put the rock climbing walls and have the sous chef and the other chefs in the back and raise their tuition so they compete against the market pressures on that because the government says we don’t have the money for higher education.

And yet people say, “I paid for my college education. Why don’t those young people pay their loans?” You didn’t pay for it. The state paid for it. The government paid for it. Our taxes paid for it. But that has changed and flipped around. Eighteen year olds, we do not allow them to choose to have an adult beverage because their minds just aren’t ready for it. They can’t handle that kind of responsibility of getting a beer. But we let them sign up for a $100,000 debt that’s going to haunt them the rest of their lives. I’d rather risk a beer on them. You hear the sin?

In my tradition, every Sunday we say forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Gets really quiet. About half the congregation drops off at that point. Come back for the next one. Corporate sin. That’s not God’s will. John would say, there’s sin right there. We got racism, we got sin. But that savior guy we follow. Remember him? Came back from the dead last week. Big news. Remember? You know, you know he was born in a homeless shelter. There was no room for him. There was no inn. There was no place for him. Public camping was outlawed back then. He was born homeless. It wasn’t too much longer he had to be a political refugee, fleeing across borders against a government that wanted to kill him. Have you read that in the paper lately? Have you seen it on the web? Got to update my notes.

They’re sin. That is the sin. And we’ve got a choice. Now you can see the choice. Before it made no sense. But now you see, yeah, we have a choice whether we’re going to fund public education or put our kids into generations of debt. We have a choice. We can retrain that. Or we, what, forgive debt? It’s our choice. Okay? You’re forgiven. That’s the way it’s going to be. It’s up to you, Christians. You can have homeless, or you can house people.

What kind of society have we constructed just in my lifetime? That we have revised the tax code and the way we reward people for the work. And that it used to be when they grew up, if you were making a million dollars, every dollar you made at that top end was 90 cents to the government, 90% to the government, we had, oh that’s wrong, take it on down. Now we’ve got millionaires that can go to outer space, while we got millions that don’t have space to live for the night. If you forgive the sins of any, or if you retain them, they will be retained. So when you look around, and you say why does God do this? Why does God do this?

Jesus told us. Second Sunday of Easter, varsity team was there, but not everybody. Wasn’t a packed church. He said, you know, it’s up to you. You’ve got a choice. You can retain sins, or you can forgive them. Now, some people listened to him. Some people decided that we ought to try this. You know, Jesus. We heard about it today. People sold their houses, brought their money and gave it to those that need. 100% capital gains taxed? Agh! Right there in the Bible. Right there in the Bible. But I already paid the taxes on the house. If we read a little bit more in the scriptures, we’d find out that that impressed the community so much the community grew and grew. People looked at them and said, wow, those Christians have got something going on there. Look at how they take care of each other. Look at how much they love each other. Look at how much there’s no one in need among them. What kind of craziness is this? It’s Christianity. That’s what it is.

You know, when it was time to get us straightened around, God didn’t send us down the checklist. He didn’t send us down the Ten Commandments and saying “Don’t do these things and you’re cool.” He doesn’t send down and say that these are the seven deadly sins, don’t do them and you’re good with me. He didn’t even send down four spiritual laws. He didn’t send down the sinner’s prayer. None of that stuff. Zero paperwork, obviously. I’m afraid God is not a Presbyterian or there would have been more paperwork involved. He sent a person. He sent a person to show us how to live, how we should live with one another.

Did you know that Jesus healed people with preexisting conditions? How un-American! I hate to even ask if they were employed, and if it was an employer’s plan or not. He healed people that didn’t deserve healing. He healed the Roman servant, the occupier. Because guess what? It’s not God’s will that anyone suffers from lack of health care. And that’s up to us. We can retain that sin in our society, or we can get rid of it. Other countries have. Are we worse than other countries? I think we’re better than everybody because I was born here so obviously we’re best. Why can’t we get this done?

You know, we’ve just got used to children dying in massacres by guns. By mass shootings. Remember when we used to be all upset, and we prayed at church, and we stopped church, and we had special prayers and services. And now it’s just another one. Because we decided to retain that sin and not get rid of it. Again, other countries have. Other countries had one, one mass shooting and said, that’s it, everybody brings in your gun. They go, well, yeah, of course, you know, because why? Because guns don’t die, children do. And they brought them all in, turned them all in. Said no, we’re not going to retain that sin. We’re going to forgive it. We can do it. Or we can pray, oh, please, mental health people, not be mental healthy, little individual sins on individual people who, why doesn’t it stop? Unh-unh.

That’s not for this varsity group. We can take on the big game. We can say we’re going to get rid of sin. We’re going to make it safe to go to the mall, go to school, without being in a fortress. It’s our choice. Jesus said that. He came back from the dead to tell us that. We should listen. That wasn’t an easy trip. I think it was something important he had to tell us. Oh yeah, I forgot about the sin thing. I’ve got to go back. And he comes back, and he tells us, and what do we do? Um, I had lustful thoughts. I had an extra cookie. I murdered. Okay, that one. Don’t murder people. That’s a bad thing. But maybe not make it so easy to murder people. He came as a person, and people kept wanting lists from him, and rules. And he kept showing them how to live, over and over again.

Remember that woman caught in adultery? That’s in John, too. I’ll go over there. Remember they brought her. This woman was caught in adultery. Okay, time out, time out. Caught in adultery? Where’s the other person? I don’t know. I don’t want to get graphic. Family show. But it should be two people. So there’s a woman caught in adultery, and with some reason the other person’s gone. Don’t know what happened there. But here it is. Let’s stone her. Let the one without sin throw the first stone.

What does that mean about our punishment system, our penal code? What does that mean about cash bail? Why do we have cash bail? Only rich people get to get out of jail. Poor people, you go right in jail, and we’ll get around to you someday. It doesn’t have to be that way. Some states have abandoned cash bail. And guess what? Everything’s fine. Most people show up, same as much as cash bail. But think of this, not in terms of politics, but in terms of retaining sin and forgiving sin.

And another good thing about this, you know with the individual sin you can feel bad about yourself and be all upset and say, “Oh, oh, I’m just a weak person. I’m not a good person. I’m a sinful person. I’ve done these sins.” But if you’re understanding sin as like understanding that, if you’re a fish, you’re wet. To say we’re without sin is like a fish saying, what’s water? I’m not wet. It’s all around us. At one time it is comforting, and the other time it’s also challenging. And we’re just the people to meet that challenge.

Imagine, if you would, if people would look to us and say, “Look at those Christians, how they take care of people. Look how they’re doing nights off the streets. Look how they’re doing that.” Why can’t we be more like that as a society and say no. No one sleeps outside. No. And I’m not telling just pass the law saying it’s against the law to sleep outside. And it’s fair because, you know what, rich and poor are both banned from sleeping under the bridge. Fairness, American style.

What do we do? Acts gave us a taste. Acts gave us a taste of what it meant to care and love one another. Imagine people giving up their homes to make sure everybody had enough to eat and a place to sleep and a place to live. Imagine that. It can be that way. We’re so wrapped up in the sin, we can’t even see it. Like that fish in the water doesn’t realize they’re wet. Like me, who doesn’t understand that my privileges come from racism going back generations, when only white people were allowed to have good jobs.

But we don’t have to stay that way. We can’t give up. Jesus Christ offers us a way out. We celebrate that in communion. We say that the difference of sin, the way to get out of sin is to live a different way of life. To live in community. To live in love. Christ upon the cross. He looks down. He sees his mother Mary, and he sees who’s going to be destitute, and he sees the beloved disciples. And he said, “Behold your mother. Mother, behold your son.” What does that say about how we take care of the poor and elderly in our country? It says we take care of them like they’re our own because they are.

Way back in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 19:33, it’s a scripture. Look it up. It’s actually in the Bible, and it says you shall treat the foreigner in your soil as if they were native-born. Right there in scriptures, 19:33. If you don’t like a little rule thing, and you want a story, read Ruth. “Your people shall be my people. Where you go, I will go.” What does that say about immigration and refugees? It says a lot about what you believe are the privileges and rights of the native-born. There are responsibilities, not just rights.

Jesus comes to tell us how we live. And only by living in love, only living in community can we ever hope to get out of the sin that we all swim in, that’s been forced down to us by the institutions and the generations and the choices of others throughout time and space that’s made our society the way we are. They have chosen to retain sin instead of to let them go. But we don’t have to do that. We can be different.

There is a TV series, “Fargo.” I beg you do not watch it. It is terribly awful, violent. Don’t do that. I love it. And this, I’m going to spoil the ending for you. Because I would love if this was a spoiler for our society, too. We have the killer, the one that has been pursuing her all the whole series, the one that kills and maims without remorse or hesitation, with efficiency so cold it will give you nightmares, who comes into her house to kill her. And she invites him to dinner.

MAN: But the food was not food.

WOMAN: What was it?

MAN: It was sin. The sins of the rich. Greed, envy, disgust. They were bitter, the sins. But he ate them all. For he was starving. From then on, a man does not sleep or grow old. He cannot die. He has no dreams. All that is left is sin.

WOMAN: It feels like that, I know, what they do to us. Make us swallow like it’s our fault. But you want to know the cure? You’ve got to eat something made with love and joy.

Retaining Sins

You Might Be Presbyterian

Jeff Foxworthy has “You Might Be a Redneck”.

Here’s “You Might Be Presbyterian” an earlier version was delivered at the Interfaith Comedy Fest, April 1st 2024 at Coffee N Comics in Reno, Nevada.

Christy and Tom Willadsen

• If you think spinkles on doughnuts are enough and dunking is unnecessary.
  
• If you ordain your coffee with equal amounts of sugar and cream to assure parity
• If you explain communion by intinction as “rip and dip”
• If you do your taxes decently and in order 
• If you think it is normal to have Easter Sunrise service at 10 AM
• If you reject chess because the bishops have too much power
• If you’ve been asked why your church is banned from highways
• If you wonder why people just don’t leave their bibles in the pews for next Sunday
• If you wonder if tithing is before or after taxes
• If you wonder what tithing is
• If you know manse is not a skin disease
• If you invite a person to church without fail once a decade
• If you’ve wondered if a squirt gun could be used to secretly baptism people
• If you just wondered if secret baptism are in order
• If you ever wonder if a church prospect will be worth the per-capita.

Surprise Judge

Surprise Judge

Surprise Judge
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

Text from 8 AM service Worship Service Novmeber 26, 2023

at St Peter’s Episcopal Church

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

  Matthew 25:31-46

 Sermons also available free on iTunes

Surprise. This scripture’s about surprise. And you may think, which one? Because there’s many. Some of you, and I’m trying not to look at you again, some of you are shocked, dismayed, perhaps threatened that he said to those on the left are cursed and go to hell. The left go to hell? What? What? That doesn’t sound like us. But calm down because remember he was facing them. So the left was on the right, and the right was on the left.

That’s not the surprise. Well, what’s the surprise? Well, there’s a big surprise there, two surprises, in both groups of people that come up to the judgment. One, they were surprised; and they said, what, us? When did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked or in prison or thirsty, and we did not care for you? When did that happen? It’s so surprising that that happened. And the other group said, when did we do that? And we did take care of you. Even the ones who took care and did the work are surprised. Why are they surprised?

Whenever Jesus tells a story – and this is more of a story than a prediction or a prophecy, it’s more of a story – you always look for the weird part, the surprising part, the part that doesn’t make any sense. Because that’s the part that’s God, when it doesn’t make any sense. How in the world do people not know how they live their life? I mean, America is all about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You know, I have a personal relationship with my savior, Jesus Christ, and he is my personal king. You know, the whole king thing. You know, I have a king, and that’s a surprise, as well, the king stuff. What? King? Wait a minute, Christy. That sounds political. Can’t have any of that. Can’t have any of the nations and all that. That’d be political.

Well, yeah. It is political if and only if your politics are that the sick should suffer, be in prison, should languish. The hungry should starve. And the thirsty shall go without water. If that’s your politics, if that’s your platform, if that’s what you run your candidates on, well, then, yes, taking care of those in need is political. But if it is, we’ve got a long way to go. Because taking care of those that need care shouldn’t be a political debate. But that’s not the surprise. None of that’s the surprise.

The surprise is that this scripture isn’t talking to me and thee. It’s talking to we and us. What? It’s not about a personal king and salvation that is my personal lord and savior? And we can’t just say to Jesus when we go up to heaven, and say, hey, Jesus, I did a good life, I didn’t oppress anybody, I didn’t do any racial profiling, I didn’t hold down anybody, I didn’t throw anybody out on the street. I didn’t make anybody – I am going to heaven then. No, the surprise is it’s everyone who’s gathered, the nations of the world and the peoples are judged, and everything in here is plural.

That’s a surprise. What? We’re not going to be judged on our personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our lord and savior? Apparently not. How did y’all, be nice if we had that plural, how do you y’all treat the ones that need the most care? That’s how you get judged. Wow. That’s a surprise. I thought I just had to keep myself, you know, reasonably a good person, and I have a reasonable chance of going to heaven, with everybody else on the left who are on Jesus’s right. But it turns out not. The whole Christ the King Sunday is not about a personal relationship between me and a sovereign.

And if you think about it, a king thing, everybody doesn’t get their own personal king. That’s really not how the king thing works, royalty works. The king, the royalty, the sovereign is for the whole nation. It’s for all the people. It’s not just for, well, I have a king, and then that person over there has another king, and that person has another king. We all have our own kings. We would like it to be that way, individualistic and just dependent upon ourselves.

But oh, my gosh, that whole love one another as I have loved you, do unto others as I would do unto you is actually something he expects us to do. That’s the surprise. That’s a surprise. We can’t get away from it. We live and participate in a society that doesn’t help the imprisoned. You know in prisons they can’t make phone calls? They have to stand in line, do the old collect call and pay hundreds, pay bunches of dollars and fistfights and all that, when they all have tablets, and they could just call on their tablet and actually see their loved ones. But that’s not allowed. That’s us. That’s not the prisons. That’s not the politicians. It’s us, according to the scripture. Us.

When were you in prison, didn’t let people visit you? Oh. Every time it happens within the group we’re in? That’s a surprise. When are there times when people can’t get the care they need when they’re sick because of politics of sickness? Why is it okay for the government to do healthcare for those over 65, that’s okey-dokeys, but those under 65 it’s terrible, awful communism, I don’t know what political thing. What is it?

What if we had Medicare for all? What if all the insurance companies who I have a hard time finding anybody that says, you know, I love my medical insurance company. They are a source of joy and comfort in my life. No. And you say, well, that’s not my worry. That’s not my concern. I help out. There’s a guy with a cardboard sign, I give him five bucks. You know, I helped someone to the hospital the other day. I looked out on my neighbor. Nope. Nope. I’ve got a surprise for you. It’s how the whole group talks.

Gee, Christy, I just talked to you about – you were talking about kings today, about maybe flags in the sanctuary, maybe about who gives our – we give our allegiance to. Unh-unh. Not that easy. It’s not individualistic. It’s communal. This scripture is surprising. And I urge you to be surprised by it and go out and work for peoples and nations and lands where those that need care are taken care of. And it’s not political. It’s religious. Amen.

Surprise Judge

Surprise Judge

Surprise Judge
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

Audio and text from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service November 26, 2023
at St Peter’s Episcopal Church

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

  John 8:12-19

 Sermons also available free on iTunes

Surprise. This is a surprise scripture. Most everybody in the scripture was surprised except the king. They were all going, “What? What’s going on here?” Remember that, that’s a surprise. Today is Christ the King Sunday, difficult place for us. One, we’re not fond of kings in the United States. Two, we’re not fond of having politics in the church, and you can’t get much more political than talking about a king. You get in trouble with that. We don’t like King Jesus. We’d rather just move right on to Advent, you know, maybe a Thanksgiving Sunday, even stewardship, Christy. But not king. And when we do, we’d like to make it our own personal Jesus king. You know, I have a king. King is Jesus.

That’s not how kings work. Kings have a whole nation. That’s the whole point of being king. It’s no fun being king of one person. It’s not a thing. But we like it that way. We like to have a personal Jesus, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. My lord, my savior, personal, all about me, me, me, I, I, I. We like to make Jesus about ourselves. And Christ the King is when we get the surprise. It’s not about me, me, me and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Now, I did not come this year to the Thanksgiving dinner at the Episcopal church, and I’m pretty confident it didn’t go the way we’re going to look in the video. But here’s a way that people like to make their Jesus their own personal Jesus. It’s from “Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby.”

We all like to make Jesus in our own image, and you can choose your own Jesus if you’re an American. But surprise. It’s not what the scripture’s about. Surprise. Now, some of you think, and I’m trying not to look at anybody, again, some of you think the surprise is that the right get to go to heaven, and the left go to hell. Well, that’s not the way we planned it out. We always thought the left were the heavenly people, and the right, you know, we’re not too sure about them. You know. But calm down. Just remember, Jesus was looking at the people. So the people on the left were on the right, and the people – so, yeah. Take a little comfort in that. But that’s not the surprise I was talking about. Not a surprise.

Everyone there is surprised that Jesus led them out and said, called them out and said, you know, you helped me when I needed help. And they all said, “What?” Or that you didn’t help me when I did. And they said, “What? How is that possible?” You know, when Jesus tells a story, and it’s just more a story than a prophecy, I think; could be, I think. And you look for the weird part, the part that you stumble over, the part that surprises you. Because that’s what God’s doing.

Why is everybody surprised? Because it’s not your own personal Jesus. What’s the first part of the scripture? He called the nations together. And all the way through it, you can’t see it in the scripture, it’s in the plural. You nation. You group of people. You did not provide for the sick and the sad, the sick and the imprisoned. You did not provide for the hungry and the thirsty. You did not provide for the naked and the impoverished. As a nation, as a people. No wonder everyone’s surprised. Because they thought their own personal Jesus, their own King Jesus and them were on good terms. I go to church. I do my things. I try to help out. I went to fish. I went, dropped off a turkey at a Salvation Army Turkey Drop. I haven’t really impoverished anybody this week. You know, I’m good. Me and Jesus, me and my own king, we’re good, one on one. Not looking around at everybody else.

Surprise. He’s not just your king. He’s the king of everybody. He’s the king of nations. We’re on the hook for it all. I was told the first time that universal healthcare was brought up in our nation in the presidential elections – anybody know?

ATTENDEE: The ‘20s?

1916. I could be wrong, 1912. FDR. You know him, a crazy guy, taking care of people. Haven’t got it done. We got it done for people over 65. Why is it moral for people over 65 to get government universal healthcare over here, but the people under 65, oh, no, no, no, no, can’t have that. That’d be politics. That’d be ruining the whole nation. Well, what happened with the 65? You know, what if we just took out “65 and older” and went all the way down? Got rid of the health insurance company. Oh, no, Christy, not the health insurance companies. I love mine, said no one ever.

Oh, Christy, that’s politics. You’re talking politics. You’re talking politics. Well, yes. If your politics are that sick people should suffer and die without healthcare, well, I guess I’m talking politics. If one of the planks on your platform for your political party is that sick people shouldn’t get care unless they can pay for it, and they should just suffer depending on how much money they have, well, if that’s your politics, yeah, I’m talking politics. But I’m telling you you’re talking religion. I’m not stepping into your arena. You’re in my house. I’ve got us a king that says the sick are taken care of, end of story, period. So when you tell me the sick are not taken care of, they don’t have insurance – oh, it’s a preexisting condition. Every condition is preexisting unless you develop it in the waiting room.

My king says the sick are taken care of. My king says the hungry are fed. And not just me and mine. The king of y’all. I’ve got news for you. Surprise. The king is of y’all. It’s a plural. It’s not just me, well, if you want to, you and the church can go and do this and help out the people. Well, yeah. But that doesn’t let everybody off the hook. The nations get gathered together, not the church people. They don’t have the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and divide them up. Unh-unh. The nations. Everyone. You’re supposed to do all this.

And that’s why everyone is surprised. They say, what? You really meant that thing about love one another? You really meant that thing about everyone’s our neighbor? That was a real thing? I thought it was just, you know, me and my actual neighbor next door to me on my street, who I’m pretty sure is named Kit. No. It’s the whole nation. It’s everybody. It’s a community.

So I’m not telling you to be political. I’m telling you to be religious. When someone says, oh, that’s politics, your politics don’t trump my religion, man. I’ve got it right here in the scripture. The nations are judged by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not judged by the nation-state. Oh, no, Jesus, you can’t go there. That’s a no-go zone for you. No. No. Be so much nicer to have our own personal Jesus, talk about king and allegiance, maybe even throw in a little controversy about flags in the sanctuary, you know, your traditional Christ the King Sunday. But no. Surprise. Surprise. It’s about all of us, not just one of us. Amen.

Surprise Judge

You Rock

You Rock

You Rock
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

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Audio from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service August 27, 2023
at St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Carson City, Nevada

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

Matthew 16:13-20

 

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Peter, Peter, Peter. What a shaky guy to build a church on. I mean, this guy, we know about him; right? He’s either way up there or way down here. I mean, Jesus calls him “Satan.” That’s not good. Why does he pick him? And we know he’s not his favorite. You know, there is the beloved disciple. Not Peter. And now this sermon is banned in Florida. Check.

So Peter gets into trouble over and over again. He denies Jesus. He’s telling Jesus he’s doing it wrong. Later on he tells him not to do things. He’s got the Satan thing going on. And just two chapters ago, now, I don’t know how that is in real-time because, you know, they didn’t really have the timeline and all this real-time clock stuff. But two chapters ago he did the whole, you know, falling in the lake kind of thing. You know, Jesus out there in the lake. It’s a great scene, wonderful time, very, very holy, storm, Jesus. Oh, things are great. And what’s Peter do? Horn in on the action. Hey, I’m coming. I’m getting me some of this. Out in the lake he goes, and of course, boop, down he goes. You know.

Well, you know, I’m thinking it doesn’t really say. This is not Bible. This is Christy. So, you know, you may want to move to the darkened corners of the church for a nap. But I wonder how those disciples felt about him? You know? You have this person, right, this person who is absolutely wrong but very sure of it. And you know that kind of people. You know, the less they know, the surer they are, like that makes up for ignorance. I don’t know. And if you don’t have that friend, it’s you. So, you know, think about that.

So, and I can’t imagine the disciples are happy with Peter. He’s always mouthing off, getting in trouble, showing off, showboating, like he’s the best; you know. And they’re fishermen, you know, they’re not, you know, some kind of – really I’m thinking they’re a little rough-and-ready kind of guys, I’m thinking. And I’m thinking, you know, they’re out there in the storm, trying to stay in the boat. And some guy says, “Oh, I’m going to get out of the boat and go walk to Jesus.” “Peter, we’re barely keeping alive. Stay in your seat. Get down. You’re rocking the boat.” “Guys and Dolls” reference, thank you for those who picked it up. And he goes out there and sinks like…A rock. A rock. I’m thinking that’s where he started getting the name Rock. I’m thinking it wasn’t Jesus at all. It was those fun-loving guys, the disciples. Can you imagine that, Mr. Showboat sinking away? Hey, how you doing today, Rock? Ha ha. You okay? Steady there. Watch out, there’s a puddle, ha ha ha. Rock guy, huh, get a load of him. And down he goes. Hey, remember this? You know. I’m thinking they gave it to him. And in front of Jesus, behind his back, I don’t know, it don’t matter because Jesus seems to know all the stuff, no matter what goes on.

So I’m thinking that Jesus knew about that. And Jesus took that slam, that label, that putdown, and said, yeah, you’re the rock. And on this rock I’m going to build my church. Isn’t that just like Jesus? Not to argue, but to transform? To take what we thought was so bad, so awful about ourselves, our biggest failure, our greatest shame, our imperfections, everything we thought we did wrong, our lack of faith, and said, “Yeah, on that is I’m building my church.” Boy, do we need that message today. I mean, everybody’s telling us who we are. They think they know.

I mean, our own school system is joining a suit in social media because of all the negative information and labels and bullying that’s coming in over Facebook and TikTok and all the other things that are out there that our kids have to deal with that we didn’t have to that tells them they’re not good enough, they’re ugly, or not pretty enough, or they’re not as good as they are, or they have to take that picture next. Even among school systems in the city is suing for, and rightly so.

And if it isn’t social media and the kids and the things, it’s the advertisers have got our numbers down. They’re tracking your web browser. They’re watching what you watch. They’re slicing and dicing you and putting in ads to make sure that you are the most susceptible to what they’re trying to sell. In fact, they’re selling you to others, saying would you like some Episcopalians interested in some fine wines? I’m just guessing. They would put the church roll out. It’s out there.

And it’s not just this. You know, politics is coming. Oh, my gosh, do they want to tell you who they are, who you are, and what you should believe, and how it is, and what you should be outraged about, and who you should be angry with, and how this thing’s world should be viewed. We need this Jesus today that says what you think is the worst is something God can use to build the best. And no other than the contemporary philosopher, Taylor Swift, says – yeah, that’s who I read. So deal with it. That’s okay. Yeah, you’re not getting any Jeff books of the saints up here. That’s coming, so brace yourselves.

Okay. Taylor Swift says an excellent speech in her concert. And one of the – the firm quote in there is she tells her fans, a lot of these young women who are told how to be and how to look and how to feel and how to act. Taylor Swift says: “You are not somebody else’s opinion of you.” You are not somebody else’s opinion of you. Boy, good old Simon needed to hear that when they were all calling him the Rock. Good old Taylor Swift.

Who are you? Who are you? I’ve come to the conclusion not everybody loves and memorizes movies as well as I do, and we’re working on that. But until then, there’s a movie called “Secondhand Lions.” Robert Duvall we’re going to see in a minute. And somebody – and he’s having a bad day. And somebody asks him, “Who do you think you are, old man?” Oh, don’t do that to Robert, even on a good day. “Who do you think you are, old man?” And this is Hub McCann’s answer. “That’s who I am.”

I remember having a spirited discussion with one of the patriarchs of the church about what picture should you put in an obituary? The dashing young soldier going off to war 40 years ago? Or the weathered, seasoned, bald man the last time we saw him? Who are you?

My father-in-law was Bruce Speegle. Bruce Speegle was the district engineer for PennDOT. They have hills there. They say mountains, but I will not insult you by saying they were mountains. But they have ups and downs. And the ups and downs, back in the day, came up with the idea, have you seen those runaway truck ramps, you know, where they have the little thing, and the big old gravel, and the pickup – the pickup. The semi is supposed to steer off there when they don’t have brakes and go into the gravel, and the gravel is supposed – this was controversial. This wasn’t going to work.

Now, Bruce was a district engineer. Wasn’t a truck driver. Didn’t drive a semi. And Bruce put one in. And oh, the things they talked about. Now, Bruce was a man of few words. On my wedding day, I spent the whole day with him, and he had plenty of opportunities to tell me what’s what and who’s for and whatever. And had every reason to because at that point this guy, most unlikely to be a minister, was going to seminary. He might have had some words.

But we had the rehearsal, and was doing like an hour to get the wedding done, rehearsal, and up and down. We had a family dinner, a lunch, very nice lunch, family lunch. We’re all sitting at the table, meeting everybody. And we went to the hotel, we changed for the wedding, all in the same room. We had the wedding, of course. And he was there. And then afterwards we had a reception into the evening. That whole time Bruce said two words to me: “Have fun.” That was Bruce.

Back to the runaway truck ramp. It wasn’t going to work. Boondoggle. Waste of time. Not say safe, ba da da, all that stuff. Bruce got it built, invited the press to a demonstration. Got the truck at the top of the hill. Got the brakes disabled. And when it was coming down the hill, Bruce was in the passenger seat. To this day, my mother-in-law is still angry. That’s who Bruce was. He didn’t have to say anything. He was in that truck. Down they went. And of course it worked. Bruce was an engineer. He did the math. He didn’t have to talk. That’s who he was.

There’s a movie out called “Barbie.” Perhaps you’ve heard of it. As I understand it, I’ve been told I must go see it by my daughter, who’s in her 30s. I don’t know when she became my parent, but okay. In it I understand Barbie wonders what she was made for. The ideals of – they play with the ideas of Barbie as perfection and success and rich and happy all the time. And suddenly she’s not.

I’d like to close with the song from the movie, from Billy Eilish, and close with the lyrics to “What Was I Made For?” And I hope you consider that, as well.

You Rock