Disobeying Jesus

Disobeying Jesus

Disobeying Jesus
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

Audio from worship at the 10:30 AM Worship Service October 12, 2025
at St John’s Presbyterian Church, Reno Nevada
Complete Service on YouTube

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

  Luke 17-11-19

 Sermons also available free on iTunes

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.

Disobeying Jesus

Great Moments in Worship

I was there when the Synod of Executive, Nancy Martin Vincent, was in danger of not having a prayer at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Reno, Nevada on Sunday, September 21, 2025. (one minute video)

Will Critical Response Respond?

After reading the following, I wanted to write to the company that profits from the interment of people without due process in the concentration camp called “Alligator Alcatraz” 

Critical Response Strategies ($78.5 million)

The biggest Alligator Alcatraz contract, at least so far, is with Jacksonville-based Critical Response Strategies to staff and manage the prison camp. The DeSantis administration began removing records from the FACTS site shortly screenshots from this purchase order began appearing online — showing that taxpayers are paying some Alligator Alcatraz staffers as much as $187 an hour. Jason Garcia, July 20, 2025 Seeking Rents Substack

Sadly, the website of Critical Response Strategies gives this error when one clicks on “Our Leaders” on the About Us page:

Our Leaders page linked from About Us at CRS website

The CEO of  Critical Response Strategies LLC is listed elsewhere as Will Adkins. They are located at: 6440 Southpoint Pkwy Ste 320 Jacksonville, FL 32216. There is a contact form on the website and the phone number is (904) 343‑3857 which seems to be Will’s voicemail.

Here is my letter:

July 22, 2025

Critical Response Strategies LLC
6440 Southpoint Pkwy Ste 320
Jacksonville, FL 32216

Dear Mr. Adkins

As a Presbyterian minister in the PC(USA), I write to express deep concern over your company’s reported involvement in the construction of detention facilities in Florida—facilities which many in the public are describing as concentration camps due to their design, function, and treatment of law-abiding individuals held without due process of law.

While I do not write on behalf of my church or denomination, I speak from my conscience, guided by the values of justice, compassion, and human dignity.

I want to ask:

·         Has your company informed its stockholders or investors that it is profiting from the construction of such facilities?

·         How does your leadership weigh the ethical and reputational costs of participating in projects that may be complicit in the unjust treatment of vulnerable individuals?

·         What moral framework, if any, guides your corporate decision-making in choosing contracts with such grave humanitarian implications?

These are not abstract questions. They touch the heart of what kind of country we are becoming—and what kind of companies will help shape that future.

As someone entrusted with spiritual and ethical leadership in my community, I urge you to consider the long-term impact of your work, not only on those detained but also on the soul of your company and its legacy.

I welcome your response and will share it publicly so that others may better understand your role and reasoning in these developments.

Rev. Christy Ramsey

I share the reply I recieve. Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

UPDATE September 18, 2025: Leader page is STILL not found. No response.

Lee Vining Presbyterian Zoom Worship March 23, 2025

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Welcome

Helpers to read 1) responses in Call to Worship, 2) Prayer of Confession

Call to Worship 

Christy and an unmuted person on Zoom will alternate reading.

Christy: The Lord is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear?
Person: The Lord is the stronghold of our lives; of whom shall we be afraid?
 

Christy: Christ calls us forward, even when the path leads through risk and sorrow.
Person: We will follow, not in fear, but in faith.  

Christy: Come, People of God—gather beneath the wings of mercy.
Person: We come to worship the One who goes before us in love.

 SONG  O Lord Hear My Prayer

Prayer of Confession:

Person – Merciful God, We confess that we often obey in fear rather than walk in faith. We let threats turn us inward, and we let worry silence your calling. We flee from risk instead of moving toward your mission of justice and peace. Forgive us for the ways we resist your grace. Gather us again under your wings, and teach us to mission in advance—to heal, to speak, to follow—even when the path is hard. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon:

Hear the good news: God does not abandon us to fear, nor condemn us for faltering. Christ gathers us in love, forgives us in mercy, and sets us again on the path of peace. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Thanks be to God! Amen.

Sharing Joys and Concerns with Prayer
and The Lord’s Prayer (together while on mute)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Offering – Doxology  For phone giving, use the QR code.

or go to https://77da2f07.churchtrac.com/give

A Reading From The Greek Scriptures:  Luke 13:31-35

³¹At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” ³²He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. ³³Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ ³⁴Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Message: Mission in Advance

Should Jesus Be More Careful?

idiotes quote on Reddit

Fear, Flattery or Focus?

Give them Heaven There is Room for All of Us

SONG  Here I Am

Charge

Go out into the world with love for the mission of God.

Do not be ruled by fear, but be led by faith.

Speak the truth, offer healing, seek justice—

and walk toward God’s vision, even when the path leads through challenge.

For Christ goes before you, and the Spirit goes with you.

Benediction

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you now and always. Amen.

 

- Liturgy made with ChatGPT

Testify

Testify

Testify
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING

Audio from worship at the 10 AM Worship Service February 16, 2025
at St Peter’s Episcopal Church

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

  John 8:12-19

 Sermons also available free on iTunes

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.

Testify