World Cup of Cold Water
Christy Ramsey
World Cup of Water
World Cup of Water
a welcome sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey
Audio from worship at the 10:00 AM Worship Service June 28, 2026
at St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Carson City, Nevada
edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine.
Scripture read on Audio: Matthew 10:40-42
Sermons also available free on iTunes
Good morning, Episcopalians.
Good morning, Christy.
Maybe a little bit. Oh my gosh, you would never get past the World Cup fandom with that. Come on, now. Haven’t you seen those fans? You know they’re doing the rowing thing? Who’s seen the rowing thing? That’s something. And here we are, look at this. We’ve got a scripture, four verses. What am I going to do with four verses? I never – I never get a good parable. I mean, all I – is that too much to ask? A nice story? Homey illustration, something? No, I get four verses. And it’s all about welcome. Did you see that? In four verses there’s four times we’re talking about welcome. And we end up talking about a cup of cold water, which works out great for once because I’m going to talk about the World Cup of cold water. Right? See how that works? Yeah, isn’t that nice? They had a whole big thing just so I could get a sermon’s thing. That’s great. Yeah, World Cup of cold water.
You know that welcome stuff. You know, you think, what is welcome? I don’t think we’re really good at it. We’ve had an opportunity to see what that is. Would you say that we’re a welcoming people, welcoming society, a welcoming country? What would you say?
It’s kind of challenging. Because welcome isn’t just toleration. It isn’t just “I suppose I could put up with them.” Welcome is, in the Greek, is talking about receiving. Almost a gift. As if to receive the gift. Someone coming in to you. You’re receiving this gift. And also in that word is to make room for someone. To welcome someone is to make room for them and allow them to come into your life as a gift. Did you see that welcome, welcome, welcome? I hope it’s easy to fall into. I know I do this when it says when they welcome you and they welcome you, I go, oh, my gosh, good job, you know, you all be nice to me, you get some reward. Eh.
There’s another side to that. Are we welcoming on that side? Who do we welcome? Because if you welcome someone, then you get a blessing. Maybe we ought to be looking for the welcome, doing the welcoming instead of being welcomed. I mean, that’s kind of where he’s leaning; isn’t it? He’s talking about welcome. Now, have you seen Japan? Have you checked out the Japan team? Have you checked those out where those – have you see the blue bags? You’ve really got to get on YouTube and watch some of these. Don’t watch the game. Who knows what’s going on there. But you can watch the fan stuff. The Japanese, when they go, they bring these blue trash bags, and they’re going bah with the blue trash bag. You go, okay, well, that’s a thing. All right.
But they actually – they played against the Netherlands. The Netherlands won. They went outside and, you know, are screaming and yelling and stuff. And the Japanese fans, they stayed. And they cleaned up the stadium. That’s what they do. That’s what those blue bags are for. They go through and take off all the trash. Not just their own. They take out everybody. They leave the place spotless. And the locker room? The locker room was immaculate. Towels folded, everything going, ready for the next welcome. Making room. Making space. Giving a gift. World Cup of cold water.
They don’t know who’s coming in those stands next. They don’t have anything to do. They weren’t required to do it. You know, in Japan, in the schools, believe it or not, there is no custodians in the schools in Japan, from elementary school on. No custodians. No one has that job. Now, I don’t know if you’ve been around small children. Or, God forbid, middle-schoolers. You know, you might say, ooh, how does that work out? Works out very well because they are trained from childhood and into adulthood to take care of the spaces they are in. They do their own cleanup. Not just bus the table. They clean the restrooms. They clean the floors. They clean the rooms. They make everything good for the next person to come up. Welcome. Welcome. In the Greek it is dechomai (δέχομαι). Making room for others.
What about those others? Who are they? We’ll get back to that. Who’s welcome to you? Who in your life has made room for you when you needed it? I know one. His name’s Jim White. I went to his Celebration of Life last week. A week ago tomorrow. And I recall they were talking stories about Jim. And again and again this came up, and this is my story about Jim. I came to Nevada here. Every other time I moved somewhere, it was my choice, my pick. I was inserted into a church, you know, and I had social stuff, I had a calendar, I had friends, I had people telling me who – I had one church that told me I’ve already told the hairdresser down the street that you’ll be down there for all your haircuts. So I hope that’s okay. You know, I was really taken care of.
Come to Nevada, no job, no church. I come 2,600 miles. I left 30 years of minister relationships and connections through four Midwestern states, working with presbyteries and synod and general assembly. That’s, yup, going on up. I even preached at a synod meeting once. That was a trip. They didn’t know what to do with me. Apparently they had the video camera fixed on one spot, and that didn’t work really well. And that was back when they were like, you know, 80 pounds. So the guy’s running around hefting it. I enjoyed it. I don’t know if he did. But I came here, I didn’t have any of that. I didn’t have a place. I didn’t have social contacts. I didn’t have anything to do. I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have a church. It was kind of – and Nevada’s a little different than the Midwest. I don’t know if you all have been told that.
You do? Maybe? My favorite Nevada story is that you get pulled over by the cops so much more here, at least I do. I don’t think I’m driving worse. Maybe. I don’t think so. But in Ohio, where I grew up, unless you had your hand out the door and you were actively shooting your gun at people, the cops left you alone. That was the standard. Here I got pulled over for lane changes, you know. Okay. You know, and my story about Nevada is that the cop will come up to you, and then say, “Son, do you have a weapon in your car?” And I said, “Well, no, officer.” And he says, “Okay, you can borrow mine till you get one.” Little different in the Midwest. Little different kind of welcome.
So I was out of sorts. And somebody in the presbytery was retiring from a small church and said, “Christy, come on down, you know, I’m leaving, you’re here, let’s see if we can do something.” It was pretty nice of him. I go down there, I go to the church meeting, and I’m sitting at one end of the table, he’s sitting at the other end of the table, and I swear by all that’s holy the two factions of the church were sitting on opposite sides of the table with death stares at each other. And the whole interview was whose side are you on? Are you on our side or their side? I tell you, I wasn’t ready for that. I don’t know if I’d ever be ready for that. Come on in and referee this church fight. I passed. And guess what, they passed on me, too. It was not a good experience.
But a month later, I get a call from someone I didn’t know, Jim White. And he goes, “Hey, I’m Jim White. I’m a member of the church you interviewed in.” Okay. I mean, this was long gone, over and done, never to be seen again. You know, do not call, do not write, you know. Block the calls, you know, spam likely, all that. And he calls up, said, “Hey, I’m really sorry the way our church treated you.” He wasn’t even there. He was in Arizona.
A month later he comes back, finds me, calls me up, says “I’d like to take you to lunch.” Well, I couldn’t say I was busy. So we went to lunch. And Jim proceeded to apologize for the way the church had treated me. He wanted me to know that I was welcome here, and he was glad that I was here, and he thought I should have been treated better. He had nothing to do with any of that. He didn’t do anything wrong. He wasn’t even there. But he listened to me about, you know, what I was doing and where I was going.
There was no reason for him to do that. No profit for him to do that. No ulterior motive. I’m not going to go be the savior of his church or anything. He just saw someone that got treated wrong, and he wanted to treat him right. And at his memorial I found he did that all his life. He found people that were treated wrong, and he made it right, as much as he could.
I hope you have many Jim Whites in your life. And you know what else? I hope you decide that you’re going to be Jim White. You’re going to be a welcoming, dechomai (δέχομαι). Doesn’t take much. Cup of cold water. That’s a lot on a hot day. But it isn’t building a cathedral. It isn’t giving them a job, a career. It isn’t saving them from divorce or worse. Just making room for them.
Hey, you know what he said? Mikros (μικρός), which is little ones. And you think, oh, children. No. Maybe. Sometimes it’s how tall they are. But really it’s a lot more of that. It’s how much space they take up. Welcome. Make space for the ones that don’t have any. Make room for the ones we’ve shoved away and welcome them dechomai (δέχομαι). Maybe it’s that neighbor that moved in five years ago, and you’ve never talked to them or said hello. Maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s something like that.
For some people, it’s going down to a prison, where people don’t have water or food or sanitation. Standing outside, letting them know they’re not forgotten. Making room for them. Sometimes at the risk and at the cost of their life. That’s dechomai (δέχομαι). That’s welcome. Let’s give it a cold water. People don’t have space here.
10,000 people became illegal overnight. You say, well, they should follow the law. Well, they were following the law until yesterday, but now today they’re illegals. You say, don’t talk politics, Christy. I’m talking morality. Don’t get your politics in my morality. We have a higher standard. There’s someone we need to make room for.
I don’t know where you are or what you’re doing or where you’re going. But I do want to say that every time the disciples in Matthew talk about grandeur and who’s the best, and what’s the best way to be, and am I number one or number two. Or am I the best Christian, or where are we going to – who’s going to be tops in Kingdom of Heaven when you come in the kingdom. Jesus always takes them down from their big expansive dreams and space and says, “The least of these, the little ones, the ones who don’t have space. When you do it to them, when you focus on them, you’ve given it to me. That’s where you find me. You don’t find me in power. You don’t find me in fear. You don’t find me in strength. You find me when you welcome the least of these.”
Well, it can be anything. Maybe it’s cleaning up after everybody else, even though you don’t have to, even though you’re not paid. Or so the next person don’t have it. Maybe it’s helping someone that’s a little confused about the language and the ways here. Whether they’re from another country or just from the Midwest.
Had four verses today. And four times Jesus said “Welcome.” Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. And that last bit isn’t an afterthought. It’s who we welcome. Mikros (μικρός), the little ones. Welcome dechomai (δέχομαι) is for the Mikros (μικρός), welcome the least of these. The little ones. The ones that don’t have room. Make room for the ones that don’t have room. Do that, and you’ll be welcoming Christ. Amen.
