Closing Prayer at Presbytery

God be with those serving on our behalf
For those working with refugees
For those bringing  help to substance abuses and those leaving abuse,
For those bringing relief to flooded communities.

Let us leave hear but stay together
blessed by food and your spirit
matching the service of others
with our efforts to do good better

Redeemed by Christ
in whose name we serve and pray.

Amen.

An Amazing Tapestry

My grandmother was a teacher by profession, but the lessons she taught extended outside the classroom. My grandmother was my hero. It was through volunteering in her 1st grade classroom that I developed a love of teaching. It steered me to my career as a kindergarten/first grade teacher today.

When I was younger I remember everywhere I went with grandma it was “Oh Mrs. Ramsey!!! Do you remember me?!” Of course she did and she would chat with them about their life and ask about their family. She was like a celebrity. She was able to touch so many people’s lives.

She treated everyone with dignity and respect no matter their age or ability level. She cared about everyone she crossed paths with be it the dry cleaner, a student, a church member, or someone in her own family. Grandma truly cared about people and was a champion for those who needed extra help in life. Growing up with her, my hope was that I too could make such an impact.

As I have grown up, I have realized what a weight caring so many can be. The extra stress and time it takes and how this extra effort and love can go seemingly unappreciated. However, my Grandma made all that caring and support seem so effortless. She rarely complained and always kept a positive demeanor. I don’t know how she managed it all. I struggle to extend myself the way that she did on a daily basis. Sometimes I want to wall myself off and just pay attention to my own needs. But then I will miss out on the joy of getting to know and care for others. I, like many others in this room, know this joy because of my grandma.

The time I spent with her growing up help shape me into the person I am today. I had the pleasure of getting to spend the last week of her life with her. I did not know that was the case at the time, but I feel so blessed to have had that extra time with her. I am amazed at the lessons and gifts she was able to bestow on those around her, even at the end of her life. It is truly a testimony to her character. It serves to inspire me to work even harder to be the person who is there for other people.

I didn’t understand it all as it was happening, but upon reflection I see the amazing tapestry of lessons she weaved to create a beautiful Christmas together.

She showed me it is ok to ask for help when you need it. She always stayed at least one step ahead of her illness, making sure plans were in place so she could remain as active as possible.  After 32 years of witnessing and receiving her compassion and love, I was able to reflect that back to her and help her. The woman that showed me what a joy it is to help people allowed me to feel that joy as I helped her. It isn’t often that you are able to offer something to your hero. My grandma gave me this gift.

She made sure Robert, Catherine, and I were organized and had a plan to host Christmas in her house. Robert had been following grandma’s lists to prepare for Christmas even before our arrival. Grandma had the foresight to make sure everything was in place so we could be successful. Where other people would have been overcome with helplessness, my grandmother had the fortitude to continue on in the same manner she had always lived her life. Her tenacity was inspiring. She continued to do her hair, makeup, and put together outfits to her last day. She wanted to look good and have a good time with those around her.

Even as her health declined, she insisted on having Bill, Jan, Cindy, Brian, Jenn, Chris, Catherine and myself together for a Christmas dinner. She taught a lesson in gratitude when she said it was important to her that she could repay the kindness to Bill’s family for all the times they have hosted her. Though she could not come downstairs to join us for dinner, she knew that having us all come together would create a special memory that we would cherish. Grandma knew this was her final party and she wanted to be surrounded by people who knew and loved her and that she knew and loved.

As my grandmother, Robert, and I posed for a picture in our silly Christmas getup, she made me promise that when I look back on this Christmas I will remember this moment and all the fun we had creating this day. That I would forget how sick she was and not let that be mark on the memory.

Grandma of course we will remember the joy and love we shared on Christmas. Your compassion and consideration for your family was reflected in everything you did, down to your last breath. You even made sure to wait until all your boys could be home. You always loved your family coming together and being the destination. I will remember you always as the courageous, empathic, and nurturing woman I love and respect. Thank you for bestowing these gifts and lesson to me and to all those you have impacted in your life.

By Rachel Ramsey, granddaughter

Get In The Picture

Mary Lu Ramsey  

July 12, 1937 – December 27, 2016

Who here is NOT in a Mary Lu photo? Not so fast. She had 5,000 on flickr and many more waiting to be photoshopped: lighting corrected, wrinkles ironed out, beards evened up, bodies smoothed, red-eyes removed, basically making us look to all as only someone who loves us dearly sees us.

What do you say to all this? Not just to the unstoppable love of God, that Tom read from Romans but to that obituary on the back of the bulletin? She wrote it. What a wonderful life.

• Sister, student, spouse,
• artist, activist, advocate,
• teacher, tutor, tech,
• professor, photographer, presbyter,
• musician, moderator, mom

and grandmom. Grand indeed.

Like, Tom, I have a favorite version of Romans 8. I like the alternate translation found in a footnote of the New International Version for verse 28. And we know that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good. God is the subject not things in this translation, and there is a partnership with those who love him to make all things good. I commend to you this understanding rather than the fake good news that somehow bad begets good, pain produces progress, or sadness is the seed of joy all by themselves like God was an cosmic insurance adjuster reacting to evil by making us whole again after damage and injury, paying us back so we can go shopping for new and better goods.

Instead, this reading matches up with the rest of the reading of God’s action in the world and our lives. And, it points out that how those that love God back, join God in loving the world into the good, a vast angel wing conspiracy for bring good into the world.

Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was a Presbyterian Minister who was ordained for children’s ministry on television. He was asked about how parents and teachers can help children deal with the horrors natural and human made that beam out for our screens. He shared what his mother did for him. She told him to look for the helpers. For the firefighters, rescue workers, medics, ordinary people who turn from their own sorrow to ease the suffering of others. Don’t focus on the chaos and destruction,  Look for the helpers, look for the helpers.

Speaking of helpers, my brothers Tom and Tim are here. They stepped up when needed. As always; as our parents did and taught us to do. There is one brother not here in body, Ric. Ric had a challenging life. Struggling with learning disabilities that made parenting and teaching him a struggle. How to behave, how to learn, how to read, things that came easy to his parents, things his brothers did well for the most part, were to him mysteries difficult to grasp, and he was difficult.

Did you read that after Ric was born, Mom went on from college to get her Master in Education with reading specialization, started as a part-time tutor for children with learning disabilities, which lead to a career teaching children who struggled with school how to read and learn. At the end she passed on her knowledge to another generation of teachers so they can give the help she struggled to find for her son Ric. Along the way she was a lifelong advocate for children with learning disabilities, strongly supporting Akron Area Association for Children with Learning Disabilities throughout her life, other than family, they were the last group she hosted in her home late this year, the aging activists she called the group. Did you see what she said about her education and training helping children with learning disabilities “her best teachers were her children”. Ric mostly I imagine. Mom was subtle like that, unlike her son who she NAMED JOHN.

I’m not telling you that all sadness and difficulty can be overcome, swept away, made all better. You know better. In fact, on the day she said everything went wrong, Ric, overwhelmed with life stopped struggling in this life and left it. Yet even in that horror we see Mom’s hope and work for the good and the better. We see Mom at Compassionate Friends helping others get through the hell of losing a child, giving the help she needed to others. Joining in with them in that vast angel wing conspiracy working for good with God. Look for the helpers when everything goes wrong, for the last 79 years you would most likely see Mary Lu…helping.

In 1907 a pastor, William Watkinson, wrote “it is Better to light a candle than curse the darkness”. A candle? In this and many other dark areas of life, Mary Lu was fireworks.

About those thousands of photos. When she was limited in what she could do, when breath was a struggle, she still wanted to photoshop, when she could not get to her desktop computer these last days her concern was not so much being bed ridden but that her notebook didn’t have photoshop on it.

Sorry Mom. I didn’t understand about those photoshopped photos. At the last when she couldn’t do all the good in the world she wanted, she turned to bringing the good out of even the most evil of photographs. Teasing beauty out of blandness, illuminating darkness, smoothing the rough edges in faces and bodies left by life’s struggles. Doing in photos what she did in life. Working for good in all things. Making the world a better place for those around her. Being the helper good people looked for.

When we look with fondness at all Mary Lu gave for children, church, and community, we remember the great gift given by God in Jesus Christ, who left heaven and came to us to show us how to live and die for others, as a servant for others. Because of his great gift, Mary Lu and we have life eternal.

Even though we know God’s power and love make Mary Lu as real and present to God as she ever was to us in this life. We still hurt, we groan inside too deep for words at her absence from our human senses. I have no prayers to answer the questions or fill in the blanks left by Mary Lu’s passing, we have to rely on God’s spirit to bridge that gap between the twin realities our aching loss and God’s amazing grace. For I cannot take away the pain that you feel at Mary Lu’s passing. For love and grief are different sides of the same coin, they are joined in this life, the only way to not receive grief is to reject the gift of love. Even Jesus wept at the passing of his friend, Lazarus. When we lose someone we love we grieve. So to deliver you from the grief you feel I would have to eliminate the love that you have for Mary Lu. You wouldn’t want me to do that even if I could. But what I can tell you that Mary Lu is at rest, free from the weakness of disease, and she is at home with the Lord, breathing easy.

Don’t let the grief of her passing end the spirit of kindness and helpfulness that Mary Lu embodied. Instead hold on that kindness, and honor her and Christ by joining with God bringing good, being a part of that vast angel wing conspiracy when folks look for the helpers, may they see you in that picture.

Granddaughter Rachel Ramsey had her own message.

Soul Opportunity

Rev. Sue Washburn writing in Presbyterians Today Sept/Oct 2016 p. 4

When the world goes dark, the faithful testify with their lives to the light of the world

Soul Opportunity
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey
Click the title above for a mp3 recording 

Audio from Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church on November 13, 2016, text below edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine. 

Luke 21:5-19

Sermons also available free on iTunes

Sometimes, a doorbell just doesn’t work. Like when you get the pounding on your door at three in the morning, saying, “Get out of your house now. The fire is coming. We can’t promise to save your house, but we can save you if you leave with us right now.” And so you go. Will you come home? Will your home be all right as you left it? Will it be damaged? Will it be destroyed? Will there just be a patch of ground there?

Doorbells don’t work on terrible, awful, no-good days. Maybe you had one of them. Where is she? She’s supposed to be home by now. She’s never late. She always calls. What happened to her? Should I call the police? Should I call the hospital? You’re waiting. You’re not going to go to sleep. Where is she? Is she having too much fun? Or is she in an accident? Is she hurt, or worse? Did someone take her? Will she come home again? Are you worrying too much, or not enough? Terrible, awful, no-good things, the things that might happen, the things that might have already happened, the things that are going to happen. The terrible, awful, no-good days.

It seemed real special relationship. He really loved you. He wanted a special picture. So you took a private picture with your phone and sent it just to him. Now it’s all over Facebook. Now everyone at school has commented, either on what type of slut you are, how easy you are, how terrible you are; or some kind of rating system about your very body, whether you’re a four or six or seven. And then there’s other folks that go on and say all sorts of horrible, awful things they want to do to you because of that picture that you only sent to that one special one. What are you going to do? And what if your parents found out? Everybody at school already knows. You’re going to have to move. You can’t go back to school. What do you do when terrible, awful things surround you.

Your phone is your life. Your whole life is in there. You can’t imagine somebody has an app to find their phone. It’s never out of your hand. If you were to lose your phone, really it’d be like you lost track of your hand. Everything is there. You talk to your friends. You connect to your friends. You make plans about what’s going on. You find out what other people are doing. That phone is you. And you get up, and you look at it, and you and every other black freshman at Penn State have been invited to a lynching. A daily lynching. Are you coming, or are you not? Your phone wants to lynch you and everyone in your class who’s black. Who’s in this? Who did this? Who thinks this is funny? Are they going to kill me? Are they going to drag me out and kill me and everyone that’s black? Or are they just going to beat me up? I can’t even trust my phone, much less people.

Terrible, awful rumors of war. Times of trouble. What do Christians do? What have you tried? What has been tried on you? Oh, it’s nothing. Oh, you’re being too sensitive. Are you sure it happened that way? Don’t have such a thin skin. Oh, it’s not as bad as that.

What about someone who can’t go home? The person who said, well, you know, yeah, he hits me sometimes. But he doesn’t really mean it, and he always says he’s sorry. I mean, he doesn’t really, you know, really hurt me. Except that one, well, that couple times. But then he was really nice after. But then he started hitting my child. I can’t do that. I can’t go home. I’m not safe. My child’s not safe. I can’t let my child – risk my child. I’ve got to – what am I going to do? Where am I going to live? What’s going to become of me? Is he going to find me? Is he going to find my child?

Aw, give him a chance. Aw, you’re being oversensitive. You know, there are some things you did wrong, too, you know. You shouldn’t be talking about him that way. You should be more Christian. That’s the next step, isn’t it, that religious thing of dismissing and gaslighting, you know, telling you your reality isn’t true, what you experience is not real. Gaslight, you know, when you get all, say, wait a minute, is that really true? Did I really get beat up? Did I really get threatened to be killed? Did I really worry about my daughter? Did I really get shamed on Facebook?

The next thing, you know, the Christian stuff, it comes out, well – you’ve got to do your clutch your hands and say: “Well, you know it’s God’s will.” And there’s just a teeny, teeny, as appealing as that is to Presbyterians, is teeny, teeny bit step to go from that to saying that God is the author of evil and not of good. And I read from Genesis to Revelation that God created the world, and God created and looked at it and said it was good. God said it was good. Not you.

Telling somebody that’s hurting, someone that’s grieving, someone that fears for their life, someone that wonders if their parents are going to be deported, someone that’s crying, someone that wonders if they have to go back in the closet, someone that wonders and says, “Oh, my God, I got married, and now they know I’m gay.” To tell them, oh, it’s God’s will. Well, you ought to give them a chance. Well, you got too upset. Well, well. That helps you. That doesn’t help them. And that’s all right. We all need that. We all need what we need. But be aware that when you talk about those kind of things, that they really should be behaving better, oh, they really should give them a chance, oh, this on that, you know, you really should look on the bright side of the death. That’s helping us. That’s not helping them. Be aware of that.

Well, gee, Christy, what do we do? It’s in our Scripture. Sometimes it isn’t the first time when people are upset. You know, this lectionary was chosen years ago to come up today, way back 50 years ago, whatever the lectionary is, come up today, the Sunday after the election. Whoo, wars and catastrophe and terror and awful. Last week I looked at it, and I said, well, whoever wins, half the people are going to be, you know, happy; half are going to be unhappy; and half didn’t vote.

Three halves. But it’s emotion, not math. You know, it’s going to be a difficult Sunday, and what do I have to tell the people? Well, it’s in the Scripture. Jesus tells us in the Scripture. Testify. You know, he’s kind of like me. When my children or the youth group or anybody that – the campers, and you know this, they say “Do I have to?” What do I tell them? You get to. You don’t have to do this. You get to do this. And so all these horrible, awful things are happening, and you say, “Jesus, give us a word. What do we do? Do we be fearful? Do we be scared? Do we fear? Do we fly? Do we get out of here? Do we run? Do we fight? What do we do, Jesus? Do we fear? Do we fight? Or do we flee?”

And Jesus says, “Good news. You get to testify.” You have an opportunity, as the New RSV says, you’ve got an opportunity to testify ‘cause there is no time better to shine a light, when things are dark. You have an opportunity to shine, church. You have an opportunity to shine, Christian. You have an opportunity to testify. And you know it says, “Don’t worry about the words.” That’s okay because it even though you that testify is about talking, is about words…It’s not about words.

That form of the verb “testify” in the Greek is not about words. It’s not about talking. It’s not about what am I going to say? It’s going to be what about what you do. Testify means an action, a thing, an example that testifies to what you believe and how you stand. So don’t worry about the words. Oh, I need that zinger for that guy at work. Oh, geez, oh, wait till I get to him. I’ve got this great one. Oh, yeah. It’s not about what we’re about. You have an opportunity to do what you believe in.

I can’t go back home. She took a restraining order out on me. Can you believe it? She’s the one that hits me. She’s the one that threw the dishes at me. And I’ve got a restraining order against me because, you know, she’s a woman and I’m a man. I don’t know what to say but I know what I will do. I invite him to stay with me. I testify that we got a whole lower floor for him. It’s got a bathroom. It’s got a couch. Got cable. We even have WiFi. Come on in. You sort it out, you figure it out, you stay there as long as you want. Testify.

I believe that homeless people should have a home. Testify. I’m volunteering at that warming shelter. I’m going to make sure that’s always staffed. Testify. I’m going to go and work at that med clinic because there’s going to be some people that don’t have insurance that’s going to need some help. Testify. I’m going to go to bed and broth. I’m going to give them food, and I’m going to serve it up because hungry people need to be fed. Testify. I’m going to talk to the kids about how the Internet is freaking forever, and don’t put anything anywhere if you don’t want it posted right up there on the bulletin board at Lake Tahoe Church. If you don’t want it up there, don’t put it online ‘cause I know someone that’ll put it up there, just to show you. Anybody can get it.

We had a youth group. We had a dating seminar. And, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a dating seminar with young people. Good times. One of the things you find out is the boys have no clue. I hate to be sexist, but it’s true. The boys have no clue. Zero clue. So they need to hear some testimony. That’s where they need to be. And, you know, girls don’t need to be taught much. They know what’s going on, pretty much. The boys are clueless. What is the greatest fun thing to do, you start a list by asking: “Okay, boys, what do you do to protect yourself on a date? How do you stay safe when you’re on a date?” And the boys will just look at you with the biggest, glassiest blank stare you’ve ever seen. They have no clue what you’re talking about. The board stays empty.

And Then you say, “All right, well, let’s ask the girls. Girls, what are you doing safe?” Then they start to testify, to instruct. You’ve gotta have a friend. You’ve gotta have your phone. You make sure you have a plan. You make sure you have money. And the on down the list. And then I said, “Boys? You see what it’s like for girls? Why are they so scared? Because the way you’re acting.” That stops. You stop. Locker room talk is gone forever. When you’re around, you don’t allow that. Not because, oh, they’re my woman, and I’ve got a sister. No because they are related or connected to you a man, but because they’re human, and we don’t talk about other humans that way. Testify. And you don’t act that way. You don’t scare women. You don’t take advantage of women. Testify.

Lynching’s not funny if you’re the one being lynched. Persecution’s not funny if you’re the one being persecuted. Oh, I’ve had trouble. I tell you, friends and neighbors, it may feel the same, but it’s not. Losing privilege is not the same as facing persecution. Let me say that again. Losing privilege is not the same as facing persecution. Testify. Use your privilege to help those that don’t have any. Speak up for those that can’t speak up.

You look at my Face- you look at my Twitter feed now, and you’ll see a picture from 2010 of me and two Muslim women, a mother and daughter that was with us in our church in the hijab. And I’m standing in front of the church sign, the big, massive church sign that the good folks brought there. And I had said “Ramadan Kareem” blessed month to our Muslim neighbors. Because they were getting beat up. Their places were getting burned. Their people were getting threats. And I said no. I stood up, and I took a picture of them with it, and it was in the paper. And even my brother in Japan read about it in his local news.

Why is that so rare? Why is that news? Testify. Me and my friends already got a plan. They start making a Muslim registry, I’m signing up. I’m going to get other people to sign up. We’re all going to sign up. You come for them, you come for me. Testify. Testify.

I care who you vote for. I’m nosy that way. But I care more about how you live. No matter who you vote for, if you did vote, we’re not just this election. Election day isn’t just the day that defines who we are as a people, as a Christian, as a church. Nothing is done in one day. You have this argument and that argument. Let’s go on. Here’s where we are. What are we going to do? We’re going to testify. We’re going to say we value every human here. We value every human not here. We’re going to work for what we believe.

We’re not going to be afraid. We’re not going to fight. We’re not going to flee. We’re not going to gaslight people and say, oh, it’s not so bad to be you. Oh, no, no, no, it’s okay. You’re just too thick-skinned. Quick, quiet, could you quiet down? Your protest is bothering me.

Hey, friends. Protest is supposed to be bothering some. That’s the whole point of a protest. Take note. Gee, Christy. You finally come back, and then you give us such a downer sermon. No wonder we didn’t get you as pastor, because it’s like down, down, down here. So what I did, I asked my friends for help. And this is what you can do, too. And I hope you’re a friend. I hope you’re a friend to all the folks that are in trouble, all the folks that are scared, all the folks that are upset, all the folks that are worried. I hope you’re a friend.

I asked my friend, Sue Washburn. Sue Washburn met me on the Sunday after September 11, 2001. I had just started at Delmont Presbyterian Church as interim pastor there. And sure enough, I reflected, well, that’s strange. Why [indiscernible] – I got called back to church after being out five years. I go, well, that’s odd how did I ended up back in a church on September 1st. And then 11 days later, on 9/11, they needed a pastor. Boom. Terrorist attack. And Sue came up to me and goes, says, are you going to talk to the kids about September 11th, about terrorists? And I said, “Well, hello to you. I’m Christy. And, yeah, I’m going to talk to the kids about their freedoms.” “Okay, I’m not bringing my kids here.” And she took the kids out of church. Okay, Sue.

So, but then she got to know me. And a year later, on the anniversary of September 11th, we put together a community communion service and invited the whole community in as in remembrance of that day. And for healing it, we did that. And she went on from that service to go to seminary and become a pastor. And now she’s a pastor at a church in Pennsylvania and also the editor of Presbyterians Today. So I take complete and total credit for all that she has done and accomplished. But I asked Sue to help me out here. This is from her editorial a couple months ago in the Presbyterians Today.

Sue, there, is very creative, as I told you. And she’s got bubbles there for the sermon. Has absolutely to do with the quote. So if you’re trying to match them up, you know, just stop, it’s okay, they don’t go together.

We look at the gaping holes between us and feel overwhelmed…
    Jesus’ life show us that reconciliation starts small,
    as a baby born in an empire - Rev. Sue Washburn Presbyterians Today Sept/Oct 2016 p. 4

But Sue is a very creative person. And she doesn’t perhaps look like what you think a pastor might look like. I don’t know what you think a pastor might look like, but maybe it’s not Sue. So Sue in times will tell people she is a pastor, and people would pretty much unload on her and say, “Well, I’m a Christian, but I don’t go to church.” And she usually hears about some kind of fight, or they change the hymnal, or they had an 8:00 o’clock service start up again. Who knows? Something.

So Sue would say, just look at them with their – she is angelic face, completely blank, and just says, “I’m a ice skater.” And they don’t – people are nice. They, okay, I guess we’re talking about ice skating now. And then they said, oh, are you a figure skater, or competitive? They say something. And then she says, “Oh, I don’t skate. I never go on the ice. I never practice. I never – I don’t even have ice skates.” But I’m an ice skater.

It’s not just one day. And it’s not about what we say. It’s what we do, what we testify by doing with our lives. And reconciliation, Sue says, is like that. It’s every day. We go to church to hear about how we can be better and how we can be reconciled to the world, whether it’s what color to paint the church, what time to have service, whether it’s to reconcile about whether or not we’re going to do same gender weddings in the church. Sometimes it’s little; sometimes it’s big.

And we practice that in the world through the week, and we come back the next week, and we try to get better at living our life and being a better figure skater. We look at the gaping holes between us and feel overwhelmed. Jesus’s life shows that reconciliation starts small, as a baby born in an empire. Jesus shows us that everyday choices matter. Each time we choose to eat with someone who no one will eat with, each time we touch someone who no one wants to touch, each time we talk with someone who no one wants to hear, we can make the hole that keeps us apart a little smaller.

Aren’t you glad I invited Sue? Isn’t she great? You’re great, too. No matter who you vote for, or whether you voted or not, you’re all great. And you have an opportunity to be greater, to be a light to those in darkness, to be a help and a heal to the hurting. To give shelter to the homeless. To give food to the hungry. To give hope to the hopeless. To give safety to those under persecution. That is what the church is about. No matter which way you went on last Tuesday. That’s what we’re about. So if someone says, “Oh, they shouldn’t be doing that,” when someone says, “Oh, you shouldn’t be doing that,” or “They shouldn’t be complaining or that,” don’t take the easy way out. Don’t flee from it by saying, “Well, it’s God’s will. We all got to get along.” Don’t fight by saying, “Well, you know that electoral college, we got more of a popular vote.”

Don’t fight. You want to. I know you do. I do. Don’t flee. Don’t flee. Just because the Canada website for immigration crashed on election night. Stay here. Stay here. If you must move, please move to a swing state. You know who I’m talking to. Don’t fight. Don’t fear. Don’t flee. Testify. Testify. So when people look at Lake Tahoe Community Church, they’ll say, “Those people live their faith. Say what you want about their politics, but those people are God’s hand, God’s will on Earth.” Amen?

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Post differs from the recording with some repeats and speaking errors edited out.

Transcription done by edigitaltranscription.com Recommended for fast, accurate, and patient transcriptions.

Christy Ramsey. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Got Any Change?

Christy asks us to consider if people can really change.

Got Any Change?
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey
Click the title above for a mp3 recording 

Audio from Truckee Lutheran Presbyterian Church on October 2016, edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine. 

Acts 9:1-20

Sermons also available free on iTunes

Can a person change?  George Wallace, four term governor of Alabama.  His first run was in 1963.  He started off his campaign by standing on the exact spot where Jefferson Davis took the oath of office for the Confederate States of America.  They have a star in Alabama, and you can stand there.  And he stood right there and said in 1963, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” He was elected governor and pursued those policies, as he promised, of segregation, against the civil rights, the poster child of those who would stop any kind of rights for African Americans, for the blacks in the country.

Twenty years later, in 1983, George Wallace again became governor of Alabama.  But this time, 1983, he would gain 90 percent of the black vote in Alabama.

Can a person change?  Well, in 1972, while running for President – the most successful third-party candidate in recent history.  No third party candidate has done as well as George Wallace.  In 1972, during the race for the President, he was shot five times in an assassination attempt.  One of those shots severed his spine and left him partially paralyzed.  His son, George Wallace, Jr., said that his father had two lives, one before the assassination and one after.  George Wallace, Jr., in his book, George Wallace, The Man You Never Knew By The Man Who Knew Him Best,” George Wallace, Jr. said that, lying there on the pavement, shot, paralyzed, close to death, was a Damascus Road experience for his father, a conversion.

George Wallace, in the years and decades that followed between the shooting and his final term as governor, sought out civil rights leaders like Rep. John Lewis, said he was wrong, and asked for his forgiveness.  George Wallace went to black churches, apologized, said he was wrong, and asked for their forgiveness.  George Wallace, after getting 90 percent of the black vote in his last term of government, appointed blacks throughout his administration and to his cabinet.  The first one to do so, starting a practice in diversity that continues today, starting with the example that George Wallace set.

Can a person change?  Saul, on the road to Damascus, not for a vacation, not for a guest preaching gig, nor any happy or good reasons. Saul was on the road to Damascus with letters, with writs of arrest to drag back the Christians to Jerusalem where they could be tried and, if all went well, stoned to death. 

Saul, not Paul yet, Saul on the road to Damascus, struck down.  Something happened.  You can read all sorts of theories.  They’re making a diverting hour, if you want to do that.  But something big happened to Saul on the road to Damascus.  He was struck down.  He was left blinded.  He heard the Lord and had to be led by the hand away.

Can a person change?  Well, Saul went from being letters of death and destruction for Christians to writing letters of hope and encouragement.  He went from tearing down the church to building it up.  He went from trying to wipe it out to being the best evangelist in the history of the Christian church.  He wrote most of the New Testament.  What we think of as normal and orthodox and the way to do things goes to Saul, now Paul.

Can a person change?  You may say, “Well, I guess so, Christy.  But I really don’t want to be shot or blinded.  Is that what you’re telling me here?  We should be going out that way?  Is there any other option?  Could I have Option C, please?  Something not, you know, a near death experience?  Is there something a little bit less that I could do?”

But, you know, there’s another guy in the scripture today.  He is kind of the hero of the story, and he doesn’t get near enough credit:  Ananias.  Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in an Ananias position.  It is not a comfortable position.  Ananias is just, far as I know, he’s minding his own business.  He’s not on the road to Damascus.  He’s not making speeches about segregation.  He’s not running for governor.  He’s not a public person.  He’s not just trying to get through the day.  And the Lord comes to him.

Now, Ananias does something right, and this is something I always try to tell people when we talk about when an angel comes, or God, or Jesus comes.  You know, you want to watch what you say.  You know.  Because it’s kind of a big thing.  And Ananias gets it right, just like good old Hymn 525 in the Presbyterian Hymnal.  “Here I am, Lord.”  When God calls you, the only thing you can say, the best thing to say is, “Here I am, Lord.”  Boom.  I’m here.  Present and accounted for.  You know, don’t say “What?”  Or “Who are you?”  Or “Why are you bothering me?”  None of that.  Those are all bad answers.  The best answer is, “Here I am, Lord.”

So a strong start for Ananias.  Strong start.  We like that.  But then it goes, gets bad really quick because, when the Lord tells you to do something – and, you know, especially the Risen Lord, you know, the glory, everything there; you know?  And don’t correct the Lord.  If you want to, don’t do it.  Resist the impulse of trying to tell the Lord how he got things wrong.  He got off easy on this one.  Pretty much just repeat it.  But he was saying, “Hey, Lord Risen, Ruler of the Universe, Lord of All Creation, Savior of Humanity.  You probably don’t know this, but that guy Saul, he’s coming after us.  He’s a nasty guy.”  Ananias doesn’t think he changed.  There’s no reason to think that he changed.

And the Lord pretty much just repeats to him, “I’ve chosen him.”  And doesn’t even give the – Ananias goes, hey, he’s a different kind of guy yet.  Because, see, I don’t think he was.  I mean, he just got the – all Paul got was a zap in the eye and, you know, why do you persecute me, you know, he just sort of got convicted, if you will, just God saying “You’re doing it wrong” kind of thing.  We don’t know if he changed.  And neither does Ananias.

You ever been in Ananias’s situation?  Thinking that you should be doing something, but you don’t want to?  It’s risky?  Ever been in an Ananias kind of situation, where you’re in an opportunity to help someone, that you can say you can help someone, but you don’t know, not only do they not deserve it, but it might work out of costing you a lot.

Have you ever been in an Ananias situation where you had to trust that someone will change?  Not that they had changed, not the whole believing thing, but they will change.  Ananias goes to Saul, the persecutor, the one that was trying to drag his friends and himself away from their homes and their family, to take them to religious trial that was just nothing but a show, so that they have an excuse to torture and kill them?  Ananias went there and healed that person and blessed that person, and prayed that the Holy Spirit comes onto that person.

Ever been in an Ananias situation?  Is change possible?  I submit to you that change is possible when we allow it.  I submit to you that other people can change when we allow it, when we make the place available in our hearts and in our spaces and in our minds to allow other people to change.  What if John Lewis said to George Wallace, “Forget you, man.  Forget you.  All the harm you’ve done?  Selma?  You were governor during that.  How dare you come in here and say that?  Sure, now you want this.  Forget you, man.”

What if the black voters of Alabama said to George Wallace, “Oh, no, oh, no, you’ve been governor twice before.  Ha ha ha.  You’re going to – fool me twice, no.  No way, man.  We’re not voting for you.  We don’t believe you.”  George Wallace would never have changed.  He never would have appointed African Americans throughout his administration and on his cabinets.  He never would have had that last term as governor to change Alabama.

What if Ananias never went to Saul?  That would have been a reasonable thing to do, a logical thing to do, a safe thing to  do, a smart thing to do.  He had no guarantees.  He’s going to do all this.  All right.  He had letters of death in his – with him for Ananias.  And Ananias went.  So you’re healed.  Holy Spirit comes upon you.  You can change.  I submit to you that that’s when Saul changed to Paul.  I submit to you that’s when the ministry began.  I submit to you, that’s when he got the Holy Spirit, not on the road when he gets zapped down and blinded.  That wasn’t the Holy Spirit.  I think the Holy Spirit was the healing and the blessing.  And you know what?  That was Ananias.  That wasn’t Saul.  That was the Holy Spirit working through Ananias to change Saul.

Can people change?  If we let them. 

Can people change?  If we encourage them.   

Can people change?  If we allow it. 

You probably heard of this guy called Gandhi.  He’s a very, very popular guy to quote in sermons.  He’s so popular, he even gets quoted in things he didn’t say.  You know you’ve made it when people are doing all the work for you.  You may have heard the quote of Gandhi that said, you know, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  That’s great.  “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” attributed to Gandhi.  You could find that right on the Internet, you know.  It’s all over.  But he never said that.  He never wrote it.  Now, he might have, but they didn’t have Twitter back then.  You know, that would have been a great tweet, Gandhi.  But no.  He went – he might have said that, if that were bumper stickers then or Twitter was a thing at that time.

But what he did say was something more profound.  How about that?  More profound than Twitter.   He did say,

“We but mirror the world.  All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body.  If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.  As one changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change toward him.  This is a divine mystery supreme, a wonderful thing it is, and a source of our happiness.  We need not wait to see what others do.”

We are but a mirror of the world.  The world is in us, and we are in the world.  You know, Gandhi wasn’t a Christian.  Well, he claimed to be a Christian.  He claimed to be a Hindu.  He claimed to be a Muslim.  He claimed to be everything.  That’s the kind of guy he was.

But the world in a person and the person in the world sounds to me like the incarnation, sounds to me what Jesus Christ was and is – the world made flesh.  The savior of the world in a person.  Because of the way he lived, because of the way he lived and died and rose again, because of that person, the world changed.  Because of who he was, the world changed.  The world was redeemed by that person.  Gandhi knew that.  We’re not just fish in the ocean, moved by the currents out of control.  We also affect the ocean as we move ourselves.

Ananias changed the world by changing himself.  Which allowed Saul to change to Paul.  Which allowed the New Testament to be written.  Which allowed the great news of Jesus Christ to spread throughout the civilized world.  Have you ever been an Ananias?  Have you ever had an opportunity to help someone change?  Have you ever had an opportunity to believe in someone’s change?  Have you ever had an opportunity to act as if someone was actually better than they were?  You see, if you want other people to change, if you want the world to change, Jesus Christ shows us.  Gandhi knows.  Gandhi knows this.  Wallace lived it out.  We see it in the conversion of Saul to Paul.  If you want the world to change, if you want others to change, Gandhi tells us you do not have to wait to see what they do.  You do not have to wait on them to change.  You can change how you react to them, how you talk to them, how you bless them, how you heal them, how you ask for the Holy Spirit to be with them.  You don’t have to wait on the others.

The question, then, is not can other people change, which is what we often think of it.  But the question is, how can I change so the world will change?  How can I be a blessing?  How can I act as if the world was a better place and thereby make it a better place?  We believe this.  We believe in the incarnation.  We did not have special crazy supernatural bolts of lightning from the heaven.  We didn’t have worlds moving around.  We didn’t have thunderclaps.  We didn’t have all sorts of supernatural events.  We had a person who changed the world by being that change, incarnate. God’s will lived.

We believe that a person can change the world.  And we believe that we have the ministry of that person within us, as well; that we can be people that live and believe and act and treat others so that they are free to change, so that together we can change the world. 

Can people change?  If we do. Michael Jackson had several songs, several number one songs, great career as a musician.  There’s a song that was number one, the first song he did not write.  He did not write the song “Man in the Mirror.”  It was written by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett.  But it may have been his favorite.  It was definitely his most spiritual.  He even got a church choir to help him sing it and present it.  And I couldn’t help but think of that when I read about Gandhi saying, “We but mirror the world.”

Here are some lines from “Man in the Mirror” by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett: 

“I see the kids in the street with not enough to eat.  Who am I to be blind, pretending not to see their needs?  I’m starting with the man in the mirror.  I’m asking him to change his ways.  And no message could have been any clearer, if you want to make the world a better place.  Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.” 

Performed by Philosopher and prophet Michael Jackson.  The world can change.  People can change, if you do.  Amen.

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