ExtraChristy - Podcast

Wondering and Wonder

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Stained Glass Symbol of the Trinity at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Carson City, Nevada.

photo by J. Christy Ramsey

Hey, it’s Trinity Sunday. Thanks for coming out of your family events and gatherings and celebrations. I’m glad you’re all in your Trinity finest gear. That’s wonderful. Great, great. It’s a really bad Sunday to preach, on Trinity Sunday. There’s nothing. There’s nothing there. I don’t blame Donna for leaving the state. I mean, I’d get far away from the pulpit, too, if I could. Trinity Sunday is about as exciting as looking at your phone and say, “Spam likely.” That guy again. They’re always calling. Or, you know, worse is, “This is your insurance company. We’d like to talk to you about some explanation of your benefits.” Oh. That’s right up there with Trinity Sunday preacher, I’ll tell you.

Hey, I bet you didn’t know something. Trinity Sunday is with us every Sunday. I bet you didn’t know this. I bet up here, you know, way before we had these screens – whoo, nifty neat-o, we had screens in church for centuries. We just called it “stained glass.” So I just wanted people saying, oh, I don’t like this new stuff, hey, stained glass has been around for centuries. I don’t know what you’re talking about. So up here – I don’t know if I’m allowed up here, I’m destroying things – I don’t know if you can see it. This is actually a symbol of the Trinity. Everything’s clear now; isn’t it. No, it’s not. But here they’ve got God in the middle. Come up later, if you’re allowed. I don’t know if you’re allowed. But come up later.

Árni Dagur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

They’ve got a dais in the middle, God. And then they’ve got Holy Spirit here, Father up there, Son up there, Father over there on the three. And then they’ve got little connection things. Spirit is not the Father, Father is not the Son, Son is not the Spirit. And then they all go to the middle, they’re all “Is God, Is God, Is God.” Okay. We can pack it up. We’re done. Everybody understands the Trinity now. That’s great. Super. Don’t be telling people you’ve got a fidget spinner in stained glass at your church. I mean, well, unless you want to. People think, oh, that’s pretty cool. I think I’m coming, yeah. Not a fidget spinner. All right.

Way back in the 5th Century, there was a guy, his name was Augustine of Hippo. I don’t know. I don’t know, you know, if he was a portly man. But they called him Hippo. I think that’s where he lived. Unfortunate if he was portly. That would have been bad. He said this: “Si comprehendis, non est Deus.” And what that is translated from the Latin is,

If you think you understand God, what you understand is not God. - Augustine of Hippo

Well, that’s helpful, Augustine. He’s saying if you understand something, then you don’t understand it. The parts you understand about God is not something you understand. 

And we have a quote up here from a more recent philosopher. Good old Neal Stephenson, author of “Snow Crash,” any classic science fiction – no, nothing. Oh. No, you’re just scratching. Okay. The difference between stupid and intelligent people, and this is true whether or not they are well educated, is that intelligent people can handle subtle – Bill, what’s that word?

BILL: Subtlety.

PASTOR RAMSEY: Subtlety. Thank you, Bill. That’s why I brought him in here, roped him up to give me that word. Thank you. Subtlety. And they are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations. Whoo. In fact, they expect them. And they’re apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward. Yeah. Intelligent people are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations. In fact, they expect them. And they’re suspicious if things are too simple. You’re all intelligent people now; right? Okay. Because you all heard Trinity stuff, oh, the shamrock thing. Who’s heard of the sham – don’t put your hands up. Who’s heard this? Because that’s a heresy. I don’t want you to put your hands up, then let it go, ooh.

Not TrinityShamrock, you know, the three in the Trinity, one plant, three things. Sometimes even I said this, and I was wrong, that’s modality, that’s a heresy. This is, like, should be called Heresy Sunday because it’s so easy to slip in heresy when you’re trying to talk about the Trinity. When you’re talking about, you know, oh, it’s like steam and liquid water and ice, you know. No, it’s not. It’s modality. And it’s not even Father, Son, Holy Spirit, you know. As much as Presbyterians love committees, love them, God is not a committee. It’s not like they vote and come together, two out of three goes, you know, none of that.

It’s not like, you know, like loving, loved, and beloved, or all these other things that people try to make into some kind of social community rolling around kind of thing inside a God, and that’s Trinity. Just about anything – just like our friend Augustine found out. You know, every time you try to describe a Trinity, you’re probably not describing the Trinity. You’re not describing God. If you think you understand it, you got it wrong. What are we to do? What are we to do? Well, we’re intelligent people. We can handle things that are contradictory or complex or not clear or not simply explained. We can handle that. I mean, you know, they just don’t let anybody in the Episcopal Church; right? There is a little test you’ve got to do before you get in; right? I’m sure there is. They haven’t caught me yet. Ha.

It’s like when I go to Trader Joe’s. Does anybody go to Trader Joe’s? I go in there. I am not good-looking enough to be at Trader Joe’s up there in [totsy?] land. They’re going to kick me out because I go, wow, what are these people? Wow. Everybody comes down from Tahoe, and they’re nice? But we can handle it. And we’ve got stories here. We’ve got scriptures here that tell us about complexity. And you can come to these scriptures and be confused. You can come to the Trinity and be confused. And what confused? Well, I don’t understand it, and I should. It’s not good for me. I’m upset. Well, then you’re not intelligent. Here’s a thought. Instead of being confused, be in awe. Instead of being upset you don’t understand something, be in wonder of the glory of God.

Because you look at the creation story, and was that a big creation story? You know, I was talking to – that’s a lot of scripture. You know, that’s a big hunk there. And, well, you know, he created the entire universe, you know, give him a chapter. You know, come on. So you look at that, and we’re so familiar with it that we just blow it on by; you know? The first creation story, you know, there’s a – every now and then, God created the Heavens and the Earth, and it was so. You know, that “and” is doing a heck of a lot of work. You look all the way through it, he says something, and it was so. Says something, and God said it was good. Said something, and God said it was good.

You know, that “and” is like a billion years of time and space in that “and.” I mean, we’re just skipping over a whole lot of stuff that we would like to understand in that “and.” I’m telling you, all of our scientific endeavor is trying to figure out that “and” bit, between God says it’s going to happen and then he said it was good. We want to know between the “and.” We don’t have to. We don’t have to be confused by complications. And that’s why we had the whole big, you know, some people say, well, you have the Trinity in there because, you know, in the story of Genesis, God is referred to as “we,” in the plural. So that’s the Trinity there.

Okay, that’s kind of a reach. I mean, you know, when the King of England or Queen of England says “We are not amused,” they’re not talking that they’re the Trinity, you know, there’s a “royal we” kind of thing. But I like to think they picked that out, the little lectionary elves picked that up because here’s another thing we don’t understand. You’ve got the Trinity. Everybody’s confused. Let’s throw in the creation story, too, just so long as we’re doing a confusion Sunday. But it doesn’t have to be confusion. It could be wonder. Saying, look at all those wonderful things God’s done.

You know, God just didn’t do it. I think it’s very important in our times. God said it was good. So when people tell you other people are bad or these people aren’t good enough or these people are below us or beneath us or don’t have the right to be here, or don’t have the right to exist, or should pull themselves up by their own – remember what God said. God said it was good. It was good. People are good. God doesn’t make trash is what they used to say. But not only that, God makes people good. That’s complex. That’s wondering. That’s confusing. We want to understand it, want to dissect it, want to have the PowerPoints. But nope. Just got to go with God is good. God made the world good. God made people good.

So if something’s bad in the world, guess what? Guess whose that is? That’s us. Enough of that. Let’s go on to the psalm. Psalm’s great; isn’t it? Psalms? Psalm is great for wonder. Because, you know, you go out there, and you don’t hear the quantum mechanics and the astrophysics of how all the stars are made and move and go and come and red shift and dopplers and all this other stuff. Psalm just goes out there and says, why is God caring about me? In all this, God cares about us. In its infinite vastness of the universe, God cares about us.

That’s wonder. Not confusion. It’s living in the joy and in the wonder. It’s a wonderful time. Not a confusing time. I’m angry because God didn’t check it out with me before God went on and did God things. God did explain everything to God. And that goes right on. We’re running now. Keep up with me. That goes right on to the epistle where Paul says – gives it grace, and says, “Grace of the father,” and “Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,” the love and fellowship. And you say, how do we get together on that? Does one come, and then they do like a costume change or put on a different mask or get on a collar? Instead of an open-collar shift they put on a collar with a thing. And then they come out and do the other thing, but it’s the same person.

You know, Christy’s sitting in the pew saying Christy up in the collar. No, that’s all heresy. You’ve got to approach that with wonder and say, wow. Look at all that. The love, the grace, the fellowship. It’s all there. I don’t know how it all works, but I’m sure glad it does. Kind of like the way I treat my car. I don’t know how it works. I’m sure glad it moves and goes places.

And then the last one, the gospel. In the gospel, don’t you love the disciples? You’ve got to really look at the disciples because they’re a bunch of bumbling fools; you know? And I feel better about myself the more I read about the disciples because I said, if those guys can make it, I’ve got a shot; you know. I’ve got at least a shot. Because they’re in there, you know, here they are, they’re in the end of the ministry, been hanging out with Jesus. I mean, you and me think, oh, if we had met Jesus, we would be onboard. We would be 100% Jesus; you know? But, you know, the disciples, they were there the whole time. And they said, hey, we’re worshiping him. But some doubted. I go, what’s with these guys? You know?

And I said, “I feel better about myself because sometimes, you know, maybe I have a doubt or two; you know? Things happen.” But it wasn’t like, okay, Jesus didn’t say, oh, let me explain it all to you and answer all your doubts. We’ll have a town hall. You can all yell at me about how you’re upset about the way I’m running the church, and I’ll explain it to you. We’ll all come into a wonderful happy agreement, and I’ll tell you all the things.

No, he said, he knows he had doubt. He says, “Go therefore and go out and do good things. Go out there and make disciples of all the nations. Tell everybody to love one another. Tell them to love their enemies. Tell them to love the stranger.” Oh, no, you’re getting political. “Tell them to love the stranger. Tell them to love the soldier in your land. Tell them that God loves everyone. Tell them that God made everything good. Even countries that aren’t ours are still good.” [Gasp] Political again.

He didn’t wait. He didn’t explain it. He didn’t give them the why. He didn’t answer their doubts. He just took them. He just expected them. Show up, doubts and all. Come on in. Come as you are. And these people were disciples. I mean, you know, they’ve got logos and stained glass and people praying to them and stuff. Still doubts. There’s hope for us. We don’t have to be sure and understand everything and remember our good old friend, Fat Man Augustine, that says, “If you think you understand, you don’t understand.” Huh. Huh. I feel better about that.

 And remember about our favorite science fiction with Neal there, Stephenson, said, “We like to think of ourselves as intelligent people. We don’t expect to understand stuff. We’re okay if things are contradictory.” You know a contradictory thing is, it’s when a teenager – anyone had experience with teenagers? Been a teenager? I was talking to someone, there’s a church that’s misbehaving. They called me in. Ah, there’s a wonder. I’ve got to tell you. Saying come in. And he said, “What are we going to do about this person?” And I go, well, you know, they’re doing everything we asked. Everything we told them to do, they’re doing. They’re just yelling and screaming about it and writing letters about how horrible it is.

And that’s kind of like the teenager that you tell them to go up to their room, and they’re going up to their room yelling and screaming at you the whole way. You know? “Why is it so unfair?” They’re going to their room, you know, so you they’re kind of sort of getting it. You know, moving toward obedience, even though they’re yelling about it. And we can handle that as intelligent people. As adult people we can say, “Yeah, that’s kind of messed up, mixed up, crazy there. But, yeah, pretty good mostly. We’re all right. We can handle the creation story.” How did all that happen in one day? That “and” thing is just really blowing my mind between the I’m going to do this, now it’s done.

Wait a minute. What’s the middle? We’re okay with that. Mostly. We’re okay with I have some doubts and don’t know everything. Well, that’s okay, go out and tell everybody to love everybody, and that God loves them. Even with the doubts? Yeah, even with the doubts. Do ahead and do that. We so much want to understand stuff. It’s why we keep making heresies out of the Trinity because we try to understand it, we can’t understand it because it’s the basis of God, and we get all upset and try to make it simple. Try to make it into a shamrock, or try to make it into a, you know, the ice cube tray in the refrigerator, you know, the automatic ice cube stuff. How does that work? It’s not what we should do. We’re not supposed to understand it, and that is kind of a little scary for people that aren’t intelligent.

I’m complimenting you here now. I’m believing you’re all intelligent people, and you expect to not know everything and be okay with that and be in wonder. Well, how does that work out in a romcom from the 1990s, Christy? I know that is a question everybody asks. Everybody asks. Sure, he’s a good preacher, but what about a romcom from the ‘90s? I need that romcom. I want you to take a look at “Groundhog Day.” This is Rita. Rita is going somewhere between confusion and wonder here. She has questions of she thought she knew this guy, Bill Murray, who’s playing Phil Connors. Thought she knew this guy. And then things happen. And then she has a choice about whether she’s going to get the long or short version of what everything is. Or whether she’s going to commit herself and all that she has to the wonder that is Phil Connors.

Rita didn’t need all her questions answered, either the short or the long version, to commit $339.88, her total net worth, I imagine, to be into the wonder of Phil Connors. We do not need the long or short version of the Trinity to know when something good has been created, and that we are invited into relationship with. Take that as your Trinity Sunday sermon. Amen.

God Moves Into the Neighborhood

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When Bette Lynn and I moved, I don’t want anyone to think that we’re breaking up or anything, people go crazy when I talk like this. When Betty Lynn and I moved over to our house at Hanson Drive, across the street was a forlorn vacant sad house. We were 2600; they were 2601. But what a difference. It was vacant. There were some very stubborn tufts of grass among the dirt in the front yard. There were actual tumbleweeds on the porch. There was an eviction notice in Times New Roman font, so you know it’s official, on the door, telling everyone get out, no one belongs here. And of course it was dark all the time. Dark through the nights, dark at Halloween, dark at Christmas, dark for long, empty, vacant, sad.

I saw it every time I left the house and every time I came back. And I saw it through our kitchen window. It was like centered, front and centered. And I confess that it did bother God. And I said, “God, could you do something about that? Could a nice family move in?” It’s so sad to see the house just falling apart, dark, abandoned. It’s not good for the neighborhood, either. And it’s certainly not good for my soul.

Well, watch what you pray for. But boy, did they move in. Oh, my gosh. The landscaping. The new roof. The painted garage door. The lights for Halloween? Oh, my gosh, you were so scared to come home. And then Christmas, there were airplanes that go, oh, no, that wasn’t the airport, and they move on. So many lights. And they were so active. I can’t count the number of cars, four, five cars coming out, going in, going around. There was even – every weekend there’s a table saw in the driveway, he’s doing some project. You know, activity everywhere. And every weekend and holiday an RV the size of a Supreme Court Justice Land Cruiser shows up in front of the house, blocking everything. And I said, okay, God, you can dial it back a bit.

And they would call me at night about 11:00 o’clock, being good neighbors; you know? And they would say, “Hi, Christy. This is your neighbor across the street. Did you know your garage door was open?” I’d go, “No, I didn’t. Thank you very much.” It got so when it rang I picked it up, I said, “Is my garage door open?” They go, “Yes, you did it again.” Okay. Thank you.

Eugene Peterson has a paraphrase with John 1. In the 14th verse, where it says in a reading that God came and dwelled among us, he says: “God moved into the neighborhood.” How different that is. God moved into our neighborhood. Because this, John 1, is the Christmas story in the Gospel of John. It talks about God coming to Earth.

Now, in Matthew and Luke, we have shepherds and kings that come to see the Baby Jesus. Say come, come, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that we have been told. Let us go and follow the star and go see it is God. But in John we don’t go to God. God comes to us. And that is the message to take. We don’t go to God. God comes to us. It is the most epic, the most momentous, the most beautiful border crossing you’ve ever seen. The greatest wall hopped over. The wall between Heaven and Earth.

Imagine, if you will, like Philippians, where the Philippians too, where the great Christ hymns talked about how God, Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be taken to seize, to grab, to say that is mine, mine, mine, but instead throughout all the stuff of his heavenly home, all the privileges, all the power, all the glory, threw it all away and came, jumped the border wall, and came to be an immigrant among us.

And not just an immigrant king. There are no kings. But a servant, a doulos in Greek, which is slave. An immigrant that gave up everything in their homeland, all their status, their friends, their money, their heritage, their language, and came to live among us to serve us, to get to know us, that came and stayed, even though he was rejected, even though he was thought a stranger, know that Jesus, he hangs out with those lepers. You know, they’re probably vaccined. He hangs out with loose women. They’re probably piggies. But Jesus hangs out with them. He gave them, gave it all up.

He gave up his home country to come and to live, to move into our neighborhood, to be with us as a servant. And we treated him horribly. But still he was here to stay. That story of John is that God came, and God stayed. Not to conquer. Not to take over. Not to be at something sightseeing, oh, well, there’s no politics today. We can go to church. As long as there’s nothing important to talk about, we can go see Jesus, and then we can leave. And leave everything behind. No God came to live with us across the street. And that humongous Land Cruiser comes in, and there’s no missing that he’s here.

God. With us. Emanuel. That pesky immigrant that tells us to live a different way. That challenges our assumptions. That is there wherever, when we go out of the house or come in the house, when we look out the window, God is there. He moved in. God is with us. Maybe now and then we get out away. We get a little call that said, “Christy?” “Yeah?” “You forgot to open your heart.” “Oh, sorry. I’ll get that done.” “Christy? Christy? You’re closed up. You’re not welcoming. You’re not loving.” “Well, thanks. Thanks for reminding me. I’m so glad you’re in the neighborhood. Who knows where I would be if that place was still vacant, and tumbleweeds were blowing through where care and concern shine out now.”

A Presbyterian minister – I always like to drop that – Mr. Rogers says – have you noticed he says “Will you be my neighbor?” He doesn’t say will you be my friend, will you be my brother, will you be my sister, will you be my companion. He says “neighbor.” And a neighbor is not a friend. Friend is someone that you’re on the same journey with. You’ve got something in common. You’re moving toward a certain place, and sometimes, you know, it could be college, it could children, it could be church, whatever. And as long as you’re on that same journey, you’re with a friend, and you go do things together. But that’s a whole ‘nother sermon. We’re almost there. Let’s quit doing that.

But neighbor is someone that’s with you. That’s near you. That’s come to be with you, to abide with you. And you may not like them. You may not have anything in common with them. But you’re going to get along with them because they’re your neighbor. At tech camp we have a lot of kids that come, and I tell them that they’re neighbors now this week. They may be friends, and that’s great. They may make a friend. Every now and then that happens. Sometimes they hang out together. That’s fine.

But I said, you know, that’s not an expectation. Expectation you’re a neighbor. You’re a neighbor, and you put up with one another. You help one another. You watch out for one another. You certainly don’t hurt one another. And you are all in this together for each other’s success and to have a good tech camp. You’re neighbors. Someone needs something, you lend it to them. Someone needs help, you give it to them. Someone needs encouragement, you give it to them. Because we’re all in this room together. We’re neighbors. Won’t you be my neighbors.

What would this radical hospitality, this neighborliness, this acceptance as Joan Osborne said of one of us, she goes, what if God was just one of us? What if God was just a slob like one of us? What if God was just someone on the bus? A neighbor that came to town with strange ways, and different ways. But we’re all in this together. We’re all going to get through this together. We’re all going to help each other. We’re all going to make sure we’re not going to run away. Christianity is not something you go and see. Christianity is not something you put in your back pocket and bring out when there’s nothing important going on. Oh, my gosh, that’s important. That’s politics. Shut up about religion.

When did that start? Religion used to be important. Faith used to be important. People used to say things about how we should live as a people, as a country, treating one another. And people, oh, you, now you’re talking politics. No, I’m talking my faith, and don’t you dare put your politics above my faith. Don’t you dare tell me that because of this vote or that election, that I cannot follow my faith. My faith says that God came to the neighborhood. God immigrated here. And God lives among us. And I’m not kicking him out because he’s different. Because he teaches love and care and compassion instead of profit and self-interest. Don’t tell me that’s politics. That’s faith. That’s mine. It was given to me by Jesus Christ at tremendous cost. And I’m not throwing that away.

God is one of us. God is here to stay. We’re not kicking God out. We’re not deporting God. God gave up everything to be here. God traveled the furthest of the furthest ways to immigrate to human kind land. And we struggle. But it’s too good if we welcome, we pick up that phone when they call and say, “You’re not really living up to what you’re supposed to be doing, Christy. You’ve really got to do better.” Thank you, neighbor. Thanks for watching out for me.

And when other people come and say, those people aren’t your neighbors, those people aren’t one, how can we do that? How can we divide up when we are the benefit of the greatest leap over the border that has ever happened in the history of the universe of God becoming one of us? How can we say somebody is not good enough to be one of us? God has become one of us. What are we talking about when we talk about, oh, you’re different. Oh, you’re strange. Oh, you’re not here. Oh, you’re not supposed to be here. God’s not supposed to be here. Yet God came. God with us. Ramana Maharshi asks the question: “How do we treat others?” And he answers the question: “There are no others.”

Amen.

Clip from To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995),

 dir. Beeban Kidron. © Universal Pictures.

Disobeying Jesus

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Let’s take a look at Luke.  Luke.  This is not the story about gratitude.  But it’s okay.  I understand if some of you, if you want to, pick an off-ramp.  We’ve going on the express route to the Kingdom of God.  Some of you may not be up for the trip.  I’m okay with that.  If you want to take an exit route right here, take an exit, go over, you know hang out at the truck stop for a while, whatever you want to do.  Look at your phone.  No problem.  Just say what the sermon’s about.  Sermon’s about gratitude.  You’re fine.  No worries.

For the rest of you, the sermon is not about the one that came back in gratitude.  The sermon’s about the nine, the nine who did what they were told.  The nine who followed the great leader Jesus.  The nine who followed the law.  Yes, the law, Leviticus 14.  Now my favorite Leviticus is 19, if you want to know.  But 14’s okay.  You know.  But if you go, if you get Leviticus out, you know, go over into 19.  Read that, too, because that’s the best.

But Leviticus 14 talks about, if you are a leper, how to be clean.  It is very entertaining reading.  It involves two birds, one of which you kill.  It involves shaving your entire body, head to toe, not once, but twice.  It involves standing outside in the cold as sort of enforce home – it’s like a little light torture in the Bible to get clean.  It takes about a week, a little over a week to eight days.  It is the law.  That is what the law says you do.  Nine did it.  Nine complied.  Nine did what they were told to do.

Jesus told them, “Go show yourself to the priest.”  And that’s not just, “Hi, Priest.  How you doing?”  It’s that whole thing, Leviticus 14, light torture, standing outside getting shaved, killing a bird, other sacrifices.  Bleah, the whole thing.  Nine of them did it.  Nine of them complied.  Even though they didn’t have to.  What a mind-blowing thing.  You don’t have to follow the law and obey Jesus.  What a mind-blowing thing.  Because I submit to you this time in America is not the time where we need more sermons about gratitude.  Gratitude’s fine.  Gratitude’s a nice thing.  Attitude of gratitude.  I like the rhyme.

But what Americans need now is consideration, reflection, and faith that might, just might lead you to disobey.  Now all you that are upset, I told you, you could get off earlier.  We have here a time where it says Jesus is okay with disobeying.  He’s okay with breaking the law.  He’s okay with not following scripture.  And that wasn’t the Old Testament back then, that was The Testament.  That was Bible.  And Jesus is okay with that.  In fact, not only is he okay, He asked where the other nine were.  How come only one disobeyed me?  How come only one broke the law?  Where are the other nine?  Wonder if Jesus is saying that now?  Where is everybody?

Faith makes you well.  Not following the law, not even doing what the leader said.  Faith makes you well.  He doesn’t condemn the nine that followed the law and did what they were told.  I mean, come on.  I mean, they’re doing what they’re supposed to do.  Come on.  He seems to be okay with being inclusive, with being okay with diversity, among responses.  And he seems to be okay with that half-breed immigrant that shouldn’t be there, not following the law, but still having faith and still doing the right thing.

Now, when we as Samaritans, we just think about, oh, Good Samaritan, teddy bears and rainbows and unicorns.  We like the Samaritan.  No, no, no.  That was the cursed.  That was a putdown.  That was telling them they were half-breed unfaithful heretics that should not – good people do not talk to, that you do not even walk through their territory.  Did you see it was in between the places that a good Jew did not go.  He was illegal.  Wasn’t supposed to be there.  And Jesus praises him.  Yow.

Christy, did you come this week so that we’d be happy when Pat comes next week?  I told Pat, “Don’t worry, buddy, they’ll be happy to see you.”  He goes, “Thanks, Christy.”  But let’s go back, back into time, to a simpler, lovelier time, back to the time of the ‘80s with Reagan in the White House.  Oh, what a wonderful time.  I want to tell you about not that people, but remember back then, back then the Russians shot down a Korean airliner.  Boom, out of the sky, killing everybody.  Remember, you can look it up, the families brought on the boat, the children crying for the father.  Waves.

It was a tense time.  It was a worrisome time.  What are the Russians going to do next?  What are we going to do in response?  There’s a film, a documentary, it’s on YouTube, “The Man Who Saved the World.”  And no, it is not about Jesus.  “The Man Who Saved the World” is about Stanislav Petrov and his visit to the United States 40 years after the ‘80s.  On September 26th, 1983, the computers in Serpukhov-15 bunker outside of Moscow, which housed the command center for the Soviet Early Warning Satellite System, reported U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles were heading toward the Soviet Union.  One, then another, then another, then another, then another.  Five nuclear missiles were detected coming toward the Soviet Union.

Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer.  It was the protocol.  It was the law.  It was a duty.  It was a patriotic thing to carry that on up to the command center, to call headquarters and say, “We are being attacked by the United States.  They have launched nuclear missiles.  Our satellites have reported.  We checked the computer.  The computers are right.  They did not have visual confirmation because of the weather conditions.  But the computer is saying yes.  There’s nuclear warheads headed to you.”

According to the book, according to what’s called “The War Diary,” he is to call the headquarters.  He is to call the headquarters and tell them what has happened so that they can respond in kind.  There are 11,000 nuclear warheads ready to go, to blow up the United States.  Make Hiroshima and Nagasaki a birthday candle.  This is what Stanislav said 40 years later.  “In the general headquarters all they have left to do is press a button.  I fully understood that I would not be corrected if I reported it.  No one would dare correct me.  They would agree with me, and that would be it.  It’s always easier to agree.”

We’re here today because Stanislav did not report the attack.  He broke the law.  He ruined his career.  He lost his family.  But he has no regrets.  It was a fluke.  It was a computer failure.  It was weather, a weird weather thing.  There are satellite orbits.  There’s a whole Wikipedia page about it.  But Stanislav didn’t know that.  He disobeyed.  He had faith that the United States wouldn’t do that.  And he also knew that someone had to stop the chain of events into violence and into destruction and into ruin and into chaos.

And he knew that he was the one to stand up and say no.  No, we’re not going to destroy the world.  I’m breaking the law.  I’m ruining my career.  My family is not going to support me.  I’m going to be estranged from all our friends.  But I will not obey.  I will not destroy.  I will not harm innocents.  I will not attack the enemies like I’m told.  It’s always easier to agree.  Thank god Stanislav Petrov decided not to take the easy way, but the hard and faithful way.  His faith has made us well.

Amen.

Testify

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My pastor growing up, Dr. Paul Bauer, said “Sermonettes are for Christianettes.”  That was probably his only joke in 20 years, but it was a good one.  Good morning, Episcopalians.  They’ve got me tied to this mic today, so you’re welcome.

So today I’ve got scriptures, I love the scriptures you give me there.  Define the relationship of Jesus Christ and God the Father without straying from Episcopalian beliefs or violating your Presbyterian doctrine, and do it in 10 minutes.  Thanks.  We’ll pass on that.  I mean, there have been wars fought over this, and over a single Greek letter.  We’ll pass on that.  What we won’t pass on is the opportunity the scripture gives us to talk about testimony.

Testimony.  We need more testimony in this world.  We don’t need more arguing.  We don’t need more fact-checking.  We don’t need more gotcha.  We don’t need any snarky answers to people’s sincerely held beliefs.  What we could use is testimony.  Did you hear it in Jesus’s saying, “You don’t know where I came from or where I’m going?”  If you know where you came from, if you know where you are going, you have a testimony.  You have something to say.

And I don’t know if any of you have been preachers, weekly preachers for 40 years.  But I’ll tell you a secret.  When you’re preaching every Sunday, everything that happens is sermon-fodder.  You know, everything goes in the old chipper and comes out, I tell you.  And so I was thinking about testimony and what does it mean to – and where is the good testimony and where things are.  And would you believe it, in my inbox comes testimony from the Episcopalians.  Woo-hah.  And about 20 other denominations, including Presbyterian, about sanctuary.

Now, you all know how hard it is to keep quiet in a sanctuary.  You know how hard it is to keep me quiet in the sanctuary before service.  Well, I’ll tell you, you Episcopalians work even harder on sanctuary.  For over a quarter of the century, sanctuary has been kept in churches, synagogues, religious gathering places around the country, saying, hey, arrest people somewhere else than in church, at services, on a Sunday.  But no longer.  No longer.  And that’s what the Episcopalians testified.

Listen to this.  Sean Rowe, presiding bishop.  In the Kingdom of God as we understand it, immigrants and refugees are not at the edges, fearful and alone.  Their struggles reveal the heart of God.  We cannot worship freely if some of us live in fear.  Sean Rowe, Episcopal bishop, presiding bishop.  Even Jesus himself identifies as “stranger.”  We must proclaim, particularly in this time, that we are all welcome in the places of worship, that all have – that all are welcome in places of worship.  This seems a basic human right, one that we are called by God to serve.

In the first week of the current administration I see he arrested over 4,500 people, including 1,000 people in a Sunday immigration enforcement blitz.  At least one of these – this is from the court case that your church joined with the church I serve, and 21 other churches in testimony.  And at least one of these enforcement actions occurred at a church in Georgia during the worship service.  According to news coverage, an usher standing at the church entrance saw a group of ICE agents outside, locked the door.  The agent said that they were there to arrest Wilson Velasquez, who had traveled to the United States from Honduras with his wife and three children in 2022.  Immediately after crossing the border, they turned themselves in to U.S. authorities, requested asylum.  They were given a court date, released after federal agents put a GPS tracking monitor on Velasquez’s ankle.

After settling in suburban life, the family joined the Pentecostal Church, where they worshipped several times a week and helped with the music.  They were listening to the pastor’s sermon when ICE agents arrived to arrest Velasquez.  Although Velasquez had attended all his required check-ins at the Atlanta ICE office and had a court date scheduled to present his asylum case to a judge, ICE agents arrested him, explaining that they were simply looking for people with ankle bracelets.  The pastor, Luis Ortiz, tried to reassure his congregation.  But he said he could see the fear and tears in their faces.

And if you’re upset that people are talking in sanctuary, imagine how upset you’d be if someone came in and arrested someone during the sermon.  That should be an announcement every Sunday morning.  But we’re not saying you’re bad, or you’re awful, or you vote for this person, or it’s all your fault or blame.  We’re saying where we have been, where we came from, and where we are going, we know that, so we have a testimony.  And here’s the Episcopal Church’s testimony.  And God bless you all.  This is in the filing of the United States court system.  Because you all know where you’ve been, and you all know where you’re going, and you have a testimony.

Plaintiff, the Episcopal Church.  Recognizing the Bible’s repeated calls for God’s people to embrace the foreigner as a way of extending the work that is the heart of God in every time and place, the Episcopal Church, champions and advocates for humane policies toward migrants.  And many dioceses, parish, and Episcopal networks provide resources, support, and care for asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants, refugees, and other migrant communities.  Testimony.  Testimony.

If you don’t know where you’ve been and don’t know where you’re going, you don’t have a testimony.  But Christians know where we’ve been.  We read the scriptures every Sunday.  Hopefully more than every Sunday.  We live by them.  And we know where we’re going.  We’re going to the Kingdom of God, and we’re living in the Kingdom of God right here.  We are not living in Empire.  We do not serve the Empire.  We serve the Kingdom of God.  We know where we’ve been.  We know where we’re going.  We know what our passport says.   Our passport says “Kingdom of God.”  Not Empire.

And so we have a testimony.  You don’t have to argue with someone because they’re just not listening.  They’re just waiting for their turn to argue with you and go back and forth.  We need to have conversations.  We need to find common ground.  We need to go forward.  Yes, yes, yes, yes.  But that’s not going to come from arguing.  It’s going to come from testimony based on where we come from and where we want to go.

Brian, you got that slide up there for me?  Here’s a testimony.  Here’s a sign that doesn’t say “Vote for this” or “I voted that” or “Don’t blame me, I voted for the other one.”  This is what I believe.  In this house we believe love is love.  Testimony.  Black Lives Matter.  And if you’re racist, Black Lives Matter Too, because I have to say that or otherwise you’d think that we do a Breast Cancer Awareness or Fundraiser, we’re saying no other cancer matters.

Black Lives Matter Too.  Science is real.  Women’s rights are fundamental.  Women’s rights are human rights.  No person is illegal.  Disability rights are human rights.  Healthcare for all.  Kindness is everything.  That just says what you believe.  That’s a testimony based on where you’ve come from and where you’re going.  It attacks no one.  It should upset no one.  It goes, oh, thanks for sharing what you believe.  Now, I know you a little better.  Some of those things I believe.  Maybe we could figure out how to make that a little more true in the greater world.  It’s testimony.

I brought a prop.  My wife made this for me.  And I think I’m going to be wearing it more and more.  This might be a daily driver.  Some people are against rainbows.  But this shows where I believe.  And I think I’m going to be wearing this shirt. 

I almost wore it to preach in.  You’re welcome.  This should threaten no one.  This just gives a testimony to what I believe.  It’s perfectly okay if you pee next to me.  Now, if you want to bring a gun in, I might have an issue with that.  But you all can pee next to me.  So if you’re upset, you can say, well, at least he didn’t wear the T-shirt the whole time.

So I come to thank you.  Presbyterian Church is in the pleading, too.  Eighty pages, great reading, along with Episcopalians, the spot on the Mennonites.  We can almost – we’ve got a couple atheists in there.  All testifying.  In 1993, America decided that sanctuary was a place not just to keep quiet for a few minutes before worship, but a place where humans that are fearful could come and worship God, and hear the good eternal truth in the gospel without fear of being arrested and hauled off because it’s easy to get them there.  Over a quarter of a century ago.  I don’t remember changing, that we thought as long as you’re quiet you can arrest people in our services.

Testimony.  I believe sanctuary is a place where everyone can come and worship without fear of persecution, without fear of that.  And you know, folks, I have some privileged folks in my life.  And when I start talking about that, they go, oh, you’re talking politics.  Oh, you’re just talking – we don’t talk politics.

Wilson is now not with his family.  He’s taken away from his children and his wife.  And I would challenge that person to go and explain to their children that their father is not with them anymore, that he’s in prison, it’s just politics, and they shouldn’t really care that much.  Our faith is a lot more than what is comfortable for us and for the people that we can see.  Our faith is a faith of the entire world.  We believe that Jesus Christ came, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.  It’s not a scripture, but that world means cosmos, means everything, all the relationships, and all the people in it, and the plants and the animals, and the people that come and go.  That’s what God came for, not just to make my life comfortable.  And those I can see not suffering because that’s upsetting.  It’s for everyone.

So I come here as a wandering Presbyterian to thank the leadership of the Episcopal Church in saying where they come from and where they’re going, and testifying to all that would hear, and many that don’t want to, that this is who we are.  This is who we love.  And this is where we’re going.  And we’re telling everyone.  Testify.  Amen.

Not My Job

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This Little Light of Mine

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Crosses and Thorns

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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.

Retaining Sin

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

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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.