Advent New Year

Guest Preacher and Canon Chuck McCray speaks about Advent

10 AM Service December 1, 2024

St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Carson City Nevada

Audio Recording

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Thorns and Crosses

Crosses and Thorns

Crosses and Thorns
a sermon homily by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

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Audio from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service September 15, 2024
at St. Peters Episcopal Church at Carson City, Nevada

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

  Mark 8:27-38

 Sermons also available free on iTunes

This is a homily, not a sermon.  Father Mike was very emphatic on that fact.  You may not know the difference.  Michael was concerned that I did not, that somehow, three years of seminary, that didn’t come up.  But for the rest of you, let me see how I can explain this.  A sermon would be a segment on “60 Minutes.”  You know?  And a homily would be a Public Service Announcement.  The more you know.  For those of you under 50, thanks for coming.  A sermon would be a YouTube video by MrBeast, and a homily would be a TikTok video.  I worked all night on that.  Okay.

Another thing that people get confused is between thorns and crosses.  Now, thorns we find in 1 Corinthians 12, and of course crosses that we bear are here in Mark 8.  People get those confused.  They think a thorn is a cross, and that’s not true.

Now, a thorn in the side of Paul is something annoying.  It could be a physical malady, some kind of sickness, some kind of chronic thing.  Or it could be a person, you know who you are, don’t look around.  Could be that, too.  But something that annoys you, that puts you off, that reminds you that you are not in control of everything, and basically you’re not God, and that there’s other things going on than you.  For those that aren’t God people here, it’s not – the world does not revolve around you.  That’s a thorn.  Something annoying, something painful, something that puts you off – you, you, you, you, you – that tries to remind you you’re not all that.  That’s a thorn.

A cross, totally different.  Have you ever seen those ads that say whatever, and then it goes “Serious inquiries only”?  That’s what cross says.  Cross is serious inquiries only.  It’s not about suffering.  It’s not about pain.  It’s not about discomfort.  This is not that idea of the cross.  That is not what Christianity, Jesus Christ is about healing, reconciliation.  It’s about making the world better, about redeeming creation on God.  It is not about the pain and the suffering and hard.  That’s a thorn.

If you see what I mean, if you go with the cross and the pain, you’re still about you, you, you, my pain, my upset, oh, oh, oh.  That’s not a cross.  And also notice that the cross is something you pick up.  It’s not something that picks up you.  Something that you choose.  It’s a vocation, a choice, something that you want, you’ve decided to do.  There’s going to be troubles, there’s going to be suffering, it’s going to be long term, sure.  But it’s not a thorn.  It’s not something that’s done to you.  It’s something you do for others.  And there’s a test.  If it’s about you and yourself, it’s a thorn.  If it’s about others and creation, the community, and the kingdom of God, then it’s a cross.

Elizabeth Johnson said it this way: 

Jesus speaks of losing our lives for his sake and for the sake of the gospel.  Taking up a cross means being willing to suffer the consequences of following Jesus faithfully, whatever those consequences might be.  It means putting Jesus’s priorities and purposes ahead of our own comfort or security.  It means being willing to lose our lives by spending them for others using our time, resources, gifts, and energy so that others may experience God’s love made known in Jesus Christ.  Elizabeth Johnson.

Hamilton City, California.  Jose has a thorn.  Every time it rained, being fire chief, he got out, out of his bed, and went out to the levee because it was a hundred years old, and every rain threatened to undermine it and flood the town.  And he was out there stacking the sandbags, hoping that this wouldn’t be the time that the levee failed.  That’s a thorn.  That’s a pain.  That’s annoyance.  That’s interruption to your life.  That’s a reminder that you are not in control.  Thorn, thorn, thorn, thorn, thorn, all the way down.

Jose decided to stop the flooding.  He got the Army Corps of Engineers out there.  He got the project done, how to restore the wetlands, how to make a floodplain so that it could flood without destroying the town.  He had all this done.  It only took him 25 years.  Hundreds of tamales to raise money to hire the experts that they needed to get the  environment.  It only took him multiple cross-country trips on the red-eye there and back to save a hotel room night, to lobby it, to go every year to try to get and do the budget.  It only took him 25 years of working so closely with others, he actually married the one that was working on it.  And I don’t know, I think their time together might have been reduced.  25 years.

He was asked, other people come and say – because it was finally done.  Finally, after 25 years, it was done.  The floodplain was restored.  The wetlands were there.  The river was tamed again, and the levee was gone from a hundred years ago, and the town was protected.  And from all over people came and said, “Jose, how did you do it?”  And he goes, “Are you sure?  Are you sure you want to know?  Because I tell you, 25 years ago, if someone had told me what it would take to get this done, I don’t know if I would do it.”  That’s cross.  That’s vocation.  That’s giving yourself, your time, your life for others, for the restoration of creation, for building community and healing.  That’s taking up the cross.  Throwing another sandbag on the riverbank is a thorn.  But now, when the rains come, Jose and the rest of town can turn over and go back to sleep.  That’s what happens when you bear a cross.

Now, this suffering isn’t suffering for pain or for heartache or anything like that.  It’s suffering of the consequences of restoring creation, of giving yourself and your life for others.  September 11th was about a year or two after Mr. Rogers did his final show of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  He didn’t have a farewell tour, a closing finale or anything.  It’s just another day, and he didn’t want to upset the children.  And he just left it, and lights were turned off, and the set torn down and delivered to the Children’s Museum in Pittsburgh.

But then came 9/11, and the country was at a loss.  And Mister Rogers came back to TV with a PSA.  Even in the aftermath of 9/11, Mister Rogers maintained his fidelity to his principles that drove him:  Love your neighbor and love yourself.  Here’s the inspiring words of Mister Rogers after September 11th:  “No matter what our particular job, especially in our world today, we are all called to be tikkun olam, repairers of creation.  Thank you for whatever you do, wherever you are, to bring joy and light and hope and faith and pardon and love to your neighborhood and to yourself.

Crosses and Thorns

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 Rock

You Rock

You Rock
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

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

 

Sermons also available free on iTunes

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

Abides

Abides

Abides
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

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.

John 1:29-42

 

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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.

Abides