Locked Room
Christy Ramsey
Locked Room
Locked Room
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey
Audio from worship at the 10:00 AM Worship Service April 12, 2026
at St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Carson City, Nevada
edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine.
John 20:19-31
Sermons also available free on iTunes
The disciples were in a locked closet for fear of the government authorities that come and take non-citizens, torture them, and then kill them. Now, the scripture said Jews; but we know better, don’t we. We know it was Romans, not rabbis, that came and took Jesus away. We know it was Romans, not rabbis, that put him on the cross. The government killed Jesus. Like to smooth that over and blame the Jews. Or maybe the religious authorities.
Where was Thomas? Did you ever wonder? What in the heck was he doing? I mean, it’s going to be like 2,000 years before they have kids’ soccer on Sunday morning, and I don’t know what else. I’m thinking maybe, maybe he was like a closeted Presbyterian, and he was off at some Presbyterian church somewhere. They go, “Where is he? Oh, he’s doing Presbyterian.” I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe he didn’t want anything to do with what the disciples were doing, hiding from the government in a locked room, in a closet, if you will. I don’t do politics. I don’t want to meet with those politics. Doesn’t affect me. I’m good. I’m fine. I’m wonderful. Doesn’t affect me. Nothing to fear. Long as you do right, don’t cause trouble, you’ll be fine. You don’t have to lock the door for fear. Wasn’t in the room.
How many rooms do we stay out of? How many places do we not go because we’re afraid of what we will find there? Worried that it’s going to challenge our biases, our expectations, our beliefs. You know, it’s really easy to do, stay away from people that are suffering, that are oppressed, that are under the heel, and say it doesn’t exist because I didn’t see it. Doesn’t affect me. They must be doing something wrong because I’m fine. And I’m not talking politics. I’m not talking about rules and regulations, laws and elections. I’m not talking about political party. I’m not telling you who to vote for. I’m not talking to you about any of that stuff. I am talking morality.
And if you say any talk of morality is subject to politics, well, then, we disagree on that, too, because I believe there is more things to life than politics. I believe there are more important things in life and faith than politics. I believe that politics does not feed to what we get to talk about or what we believe or who we love or what we support or what we say is not allowed. I believe in going into locked rooms that politicians say stay out of there. Don’t talk to those people. You can’t trust them. So stay out of them locked doors and don’t listen to the people that are imprisoned. Don’t talk to the people.
America has 5% of the world’s population. Five, 5%. But of the total population of the people in prison, we have 25%. Are we that much worse than every other country in the world? Are we five times worse than every other country in the world? I do not believe that. I saw that’s a moral issue, not a political issue. We lock up people and then say, well, I didn’t see it. Must not be happening. There was a saying about doing your own research, you know. But does doing your own research often just mean watching some – going down some rabbit hole on YouTube and as the algorithm takes you more and more to what you like more and more, and you don’t hear anything else, you don’t go in a locked room.
Or it might be just your limited bias, your limited experience as a person growing up, and you don’t see anybody else. It might be that social media echo chamber where you just like the people that say what you like, and then suddenly all you hear is yourself echoed back through influencers and posters and content providers. But you don’t see any of that. Heck, now we’ve got AI. AI will tell you anything you want. AI will hallucinate if it needs to, to tell you what you want to know, how you want to know it. We’ll never get to that room where Jesus is. We’ll never be in that room where people are scared for their lives. We’ll never be in that room where people are suffering. And I tell you what, we’ll never see scars. And we say there is no pain. I haven’t seen any scars. Unless I see them, they’re not there. They don’t exist.
I can drive through town and not get shot dead, so it didn’t happen. Renee Good, Alex Pretti must have been doing something wrong. Because I don’t want to go in there where I think that people are shot dead in the streets. I don’t want to go that route. Might be scars in there. Heck fire. I might get some scars. Oh, no. You know, church has always been about experiential, where we’re all about the experience and the belief and the overwhelming and the feelings and all that. That’s great. But, you know, the church never stopped there. The church has always been experience plus.
You know, like Alexa+. You get the extra AI on your little talking thing? Oh, my god, it’s just annoying. And then, or Amazon+ or whatever plus. Where religions, where experience plus. And that plus is testimony. Which is a limited subset of what a plus really is. Testimony to people talking about their experience, what they believe, where they’ve been, how they’re doing. Sure, that’s a plus. But the real plus includes the testimony, but it’s actually something called empathy. Empathy. Where we feel the other people. Where we’ve gone into that locked room and found out what other people do to those that preach peace and love and acceptance of others.
Thomas almost got it. I don’t know, maybe he did. But Thomas seems to think that the scars and the holes and the wounds are some kind of ID, you know, like a passport or the CLEAR ID or some kind of TSA program where you have to have biometrics in order to figure out who Jesus is. But that’s not what Jesus showed him, I think. I think what Jesus was saying goes, yeah, you’re not hurt. Yeah, you don’t have scars. Yeah, they didn’t crucify you. But they do it to other people. And you should recognize that. You should feel that. You should know, feel, be empathetic with those that are suffering and are full of scars.
Not to say that Jesus exists, but to say that suffering exists. Other people exist. Other people matter. Oh, my gosh, you’re saying that’s so close to black lives matter. Other people matter. Not just what I feel and think and experience and know. ICE isn’t coming to Carson City. We’re fine. Been told that. Really? We’re all out there with Thomas. There’s places I don’t want to go. Oh, my gosh. I can’t think of any. One thing I think about right now is telling my daughter how to parent. Oh, man. Don’t want to go in there. That’s awful. That’s a dangerous place. But, you know, I know about her pain and her suffering. I see it. Trying to navigate a 10-year-old that, not really, that she suddenly got. Not from her significant others.
I remember talking to a really gifted and competent church leader. And I asked him why he hadn’t been moderator in a presbytery, you know, a leader in the church. I forgot he was gay. At that time, gay people couldn’t have leadership in the church. I was kind of embarrassed. I was running around in my white cis male privilege everywhere, unaware of who was hiding in locked closets, looking at each other’s scars, telling tales of oppression and heartache that I just skip on by.
Thomas, you know, something, you know, he started out kind of denying and doubting, and we kind of make a little fun of him. But you know what? That guy went into the locked door. He went into the locked room. He risked his bias, he risked his belief, he risked that everything’s okay, and I’ve just got to live my good life and think good things will happen. He risked all that and went into that locked room because he believed the testimony of others. He did not just research, but a real search. He went to find the people that were hurting and were telling him things he didn’t believe and went where they were and checked it out and experienced it and found some scars.
So when people say, well, I’ve done your research, I’ve done my research, how about doing a real search? How about talking to some real people? I bet you whatever research you did you didn’t talk to one single real person that was affected by whatever you’re talking about. How about doing that? Next time someone says they’ve done their research or you do your research. Harder to do.
Just did a schedule for – I’m in the 12-Step group, and I did a schedule for our region, and I noticed how over the last five years we’ve pretty much moved to Zoom. I’m how thinking how much we lost that, you know, the time before, the time after. I think those are the times that we show each other our scars and our wounds. And we can touch them and say, yeah, you really got hurt. It’s real.
Apple TV series “Shrinking,” love it. It’s almost worth buying. You can get like a month free or something, you can just do them all, three seasons. It’s about some psychiatrists and counselors working away. The finale was there, I’m not going to spoil it all, but there was one. Harrison Ford’s in it. Harrison Ford’s fans, okay, cool, he’s very much so. So Harrison’s in there, and he’s the lead psychologist. And he’s talking to Jimmy, the other main character.
And Jimmy’s had some rough times through the series, really rough times with his wife dying, his father issues, his daughter, all sorts of relations. And Harrison Ford as Paul comes and tells him, meets him where he’s at and says,
Letting go of the past just means you don’t allow your scars to hold you back anymore
I’m covered in them Paul.
Good. What a shame to be 42 years of age and not completely covered in scars. They are the evidence of a life fully lived.
That means you’ve been with people, that means you’ve reached out and you’ve loved people. That means you’ve been in relationships.
And he had arranged that the relationship he was scared to continue was sitting right over there. And he says, “Your breakfast isn’t with me.” Okay. It’s a spoiler. “Your breakfast isn’t with me. It’s with her.” And he says, “Go make some more scars.”
Gee, Christy, that was really good. But it was kind of a downer. I mean, really, we usually have some ‘90s romcom, you know, to bring us a little up, you know. Well, guess what? Warning. The word “gay” is seen a lot in this clip. So much gay. So buckle up.
This would be a room without doubt. Be gay.
Clip from In & Out
© 1997 Paramount Pictures Corporation
