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Leting Go of Sin and Personal Proof
Cathedrals and Measles
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey
Click the title above for a mp3 recording
Audio from Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church, on May 5, 2019
edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions; all errors are mine.
John 20-19-31
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Here’s something you didn’t know. Thomas is the patron saint of Internet trolls. It’s true. It’s true. I just elected him today. He is the first Internet troll. Does anybody know what a troll is? That’s the one that comes from the outside and throws hand grenades into conversations. “Oh, I don’t believe it. “ BOOM! “It never happened.” BLAM! “Prove it to me.” POW!
You see, I hate to go against Jesus, but I think I’m just going against the gospel writer, John. This story is not about doubt. For me, anyway, this is not doubt. Because doubt and faith are friends. Doubt and faith, they go out for and dance. You’ve been to that dance. You know the dance? “Well, I don’t know, but…” Doubt:I don’t know and Faith:But I’ll try it anyway. That is doubt and faith, dancing.
That’s not what we have here. If we had actual sincere doubt here, Thomas would be respectful. Thomas would be asking questions. He would say, “Are you sure? How did you know it was Jesus? What was he wearing? Did he have a nametag?” He might have done that. That is doubt. “You sure it wasn’t a celebrity impersonator?” I don’t know, maybe they had them back then. You know, doubtful questions. “Are you sure? How do you know?” You know, that kind of stuff. That is doubt. “I know, but maybe.” No, no, no, no. Not our friend Thomas. Thomas wanted proof. He was a proofer. He was a proofer. There just wasn’t any Internet around to get his conspiracy theories off the ground. “I want proof.”
The proof was all about him: me, mine. Nothing about the room full of eyewitnesses. Now, remember we’re talking about the Gospel John. Don’t be throwing in those other Gospels. That’s synoptic. They’ve just got one eye they all see through. Don’t be looking at them. Look at John. John’s got another eye. In John, those disciples weren’t just the top 12. “Well, there’s only 11, Christy, because, you know, Judas went on to….” Yeah, no, not – that’s the other one gospels.
For John, the disciples was a group of people – men, women, just a crowd, the gang, the posse. Those people. You’ve got the disciples of Jesus testifying. Who here is going to say, “Oh they’re not very trustworthy. I don’t believe them.” But Thomas does! Eyewitnesses that are his friends, his colleagues. The people he has lived and travelled with for years. His workmates. They’re saying, “Thomas, we were here. This happened.” And Thomas says, “No, it didn’t. I know better. It didn’t happen until it is proven to me.”
Global warming? It’s snowing outside. It’s snowing where I live so you know nothing. Right? Internet troll, all the way. Proof. Unless I see it. Unless I thrust my hand in the – anybody else get grossed out by that every year? Eww, Thomas. Proofer. Me. Mine. It’s got to be right here with me. I’ve got the thing. Nobody else matters. There is no other proof except my proof, my thing, what I believe, what I see. All you other guys, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Imagine saying that to the disciples of Jesus. No wonder he’s the patron saint of Internet trolls. Man earned it.
We do Proofing. A woman says she’s abused. And men usually say about the abuser, “Well he’s always been good to me. I never saw it. I can’t believe it. I am the proof it didn’t happen to you.” There’s Thomas all among us. It’s not the doubt that’s a problem in our society today, it’s the proofers. The proofers like Thomas. Proofers are everywhere.
Hasn’t always been that way. Every hear of the Notre Dame Cathedral, been in the news, with the big fire? 182 years to build. 182 years to build. We get upset when the road is closed for a weekend. “What are they doing? I have places to be.” 182 years. It took so long to build that, that we don’t know who started it. Of the original team, the first architect, the historians say, “We’re not really sure who started it. We do know the second generation that worked on it.”
There were generations that were building it. And, you know, I’m sure there were people that just went for the paycheck; you know? That just went for the bucket of meal or whatever they got back then. And, you know, and they just cut the wood or they laid the stone or they quarried the stone or whatever they’re going to do. And that was just it, and they went home. They didn’t care. But you know, there were at least some people that were building a cathedral they would never see. They were building a church, a place for God, that they would never walk in, that they would never see, that no one could ever prove to them that would actually exist. They gave their lives for something they would never see.
That’s the opposite of proofer. That’s some faith there. That’s some faith. They might have had some doubts. They should. There was a lot of politics stirring up the pot and boiling over at times during a 182-year project. But you know what? They showed up for work anyway, doing that dance of faith and doubt. Because faith and doubt say, I know, but okay. I know it’s hard to believe, but okay. Where proofers, proofers will say, “But I know.” Instead faith saying “I don’t know but,”. Proofers say “But I know, and nobody can tell me different. Let me explain to you why your eyewitness experience is wrong. Because I know. I’m the proofer.” Faith Says: “It isn’t all and only about me…there is more to the world than my in my world view. Others have truth.”
So what am I going to do if you’re not into cathedral building? I’m not going to talk you into that. That’s probably okay. Let’s talk measles. Measles. Now, you may think measles are an inconvenient rash. Just a little thing, a couple days away from school or work, a childhood disease, an annoyance, a bump in the road. But I want to tell you, as recently as 1980, 2.6 million people died every year from measles. 2.6 million people died. And that’s not counting the people that were blind or people that lost some portion of their sight every year from measles. That is like, now, Nevada in 2010 was about 2.6 million people. So that’s like Nevada disappearing every year, everyone in Nevada. It’s not just some little inconvenient rash. Deadly, deadly killer.
But there were some people that saw beyond that, and saw that if they gave their lifetimes, if they gave decades to vaccination, to education, to preparing the world, they can wipe out that wiping-out disease, the death and blindness in the world. And over decades they worked at it, and they tried, and they worked, and they trekked, and they vaccinated, and they educated, and they funded. In 2000, measles was declared gone in the United States of America. But it’s back. It’s back. Because people didn’t see it. They didn’t have proof. “Sure, everybody else says this, but I know better.”
It’s not just cathedrals that take decades to build. It’s society. It’s health. It’s prosperity. It can’t be done in a tweet. And it can’t be done if we don’t trust one another; if we decide that what we know and what we experience is the only measure, and we throw away everything else. What are we building that we hope 200 years from now will benefit society? What are we building that 200 years from now will glorify God? That’s a tough question.
See, John’s a tough gospel. He’s not like those other guys, the three that see through single-eye peephole, Sunday school story kind of people. He’s kind of deep. I told you one thing about John that you need to know from the Scripture. One thing that he doesn’t do the 12. He doesn’t have the 12 disciples. He has disciples. He has a group. He has a posse. He has a crowd. Another thing about John, he doesn’t do the seven – not the 12, not the seven. What seven? The seven deadly sins. Not in John. For John, sin is not about morality. Sin is not something you do. Sin is theological, not behavioral. Sin is not seeing God in Jesus Christ. That’s sin. And everything else is postscript. If you cannot see God’s work in Jesus Christ, you’re in sin. And if you can, you’re not in sin.
Now, now we can understand that crazy bit. Remember the crazy bit we skipped over because we were all about Thomas and doubting and stuff like that? If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. Okay, we’re cool on that one. But if you retain the sin of any, they are retained. What the heck is that? Is there some kind of spiritual bank somewhere where you deposit sin and withdraw grace? Are there some ledgers somewhere where people keep track, who is the CEO? What’s the stock offering? When’s the IPO? When’s this crazy financial spreadsheet of sins coming and going and people saying yes and no on this.
But if you think, if you know, that Jesus is talking to a community and not to a person – not to a bishop, not to a Pope, not to a church official, but to the actual community here – and if you know that sin is not behavioral, but theological for John, I don’t think he would be so happy with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Say it with me. What is sin? Any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. Yes, I got a scholarship for memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Thank you very much. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. We’ll have a reading later.
But if you think the law of God is what expresses God’s purpose – and in the Westminster Shorter Catechism God’s purpose is expressed in the 10 Commandments. But if you think that the law of God is what expresses God’s purpose, because it should, then the pinnacle of that, what expresses God’s purpose for humanity is not the law, but Jesus Christ. So any want of transgression unto or conformity unto God revealed in Jesus Christ would be for John, I argue, is what sin is.
And now it makes sense. Community. If you can fix, forgive; if you as a community can fix your blindness and cannot do the sin, which means you can see God in Jesus Christ; if you can live and believe and know that as a community, then guess what? God is there with you. If you deny God is there with you, if you deny God is with you, if you say that you need proof, then God is not with you. That makes a lot more sense than a spiritual bank accounting and ledgers of sins coming and going.
And you’re saying to me, probably, “Christy, I’m glad it’s been four years since you’ve been here. We’ve already had a sermon and a half.” Do you got any proof on this? Hah. See? Proof. I don’t know about proof, but I’ve got some faith for you. Did you read that little part, there’s two times Jesus comes to the room. Two times. And I think it’s important what they say about each time. The first time he comes to the room, what do they say about the room and the conditions of the room? The doors were locked. And? For fear of the Jews.
Now, that’s just plain racism there because Jews didn’t kill Jesus. The Empire killed Jesus. Don’t let anybody tell you different. Those were Romans. That was Empire. That was power. We’re not fear of the Jews, we’re fear of Empire because that’s what killed Jesus. Doors were locked for fear of the Jews. And you know what? I don’t know, but I think Thomas was the scariest. I think Thomas was down in his basement, trying to get that WiFi signal working, even though he was 2,000 years too soon, trying to get on his conspiracy websites and proofers chats downstairs in the basement. Again, patron saint of the trolls. He was all alone, as trolls live.
The second time was the door locked? No, the door was shut. It was not locked. It was shut. Was there any fear? Maybe. But it didn’t get into the gospel. The door was shut. Not locked, not fearful. I’m telling you right there because I want to believe – and I don’t have proof, but I believe – that they were beginning to forgive the sins, like Jesus gave them permission to do. They were beginning to see that God was in Jesus Christ. They were beginning to be that community that Jesus Christ called them to be. They were beginning to be what Jesus told them to be. Don’t stay in sin. Don’t refuse to see God working in Jesus Christ. Do not refuse to see that God is with us. Don’t lock out the world.
And you know what? Don’t lock out those annoying people like Thomas, who’s telling you what you saw, what you witness, what you experience isn’t true. Even him, let him in because, if you keep him out, he’s going to stay out. If you retain the sin of any, the sin will be retained. But if you forgive and restore and fix, God will be with you. And sure enough, he showed up.
Don’t wait for proof in the basement of your house trolling on the Internet. Don’t look for proof. Look for God with us. God in Jesus Christ. Fix it where you don’t see it, and do not retain the sin of not seeing God at work in the world. Do not retain the sin of not seeing God at work in other people. Yes, even Internet trolls. Even people we don’t think should be with us. Don’t say, “But I know.” But be honest and say, “I don’t know, but I believe.” I believe the church. I believe the disciples. I believe the Bible. I believe the community. I believe the woman, then who said Jesus is risen and now who say they’ve been crucified. I believe those who went before me in the faith and those that will follow after me, decades and hundreds of years in the future. And I will be building that cathedral, that society. I will be part of that.
Dr. Elton Trueblood, a Quaker, said a man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he would never sit. Don’t wait for proof. Build up God’s kingdom and faith. Plant that tree, build that cathedral, believe that woman. Amen.
Christy Ramsey
Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God Paperback – May 5, 2020 by Kaitlin B. Curtice (Author)
