Grits and the Gospel - April 12, 2026

Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of grits in the gospel My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths, and I'm so thankful to be with you here on the second Sunday At of Easter It is a beautiful season except for the pollen I'm a little sniffly this morning. I am NOT sick. I am just sick of inhaling the yellow Powder that is outside my door And it's really chilly this morning and the cold mornings and warm afternoons always get my sinuses too. So if I sniffle today, I apologize in advance if you hear the dog snoring today, I apologize in advance It is good to be with you today Let us come together now in a time of worship the Lord be with you and also with you Today's epistle lesson is from 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 3 through 9 here now the word of the Lord Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ By his great mercy. He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading Kept in heaven for you Who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time It is the in this you rejoice even if now for a little while you have to suffer various trials So that the geniusness of your faith Being more precious than gold that through perishable is though perishable is tested by fire May be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed although you though you have not seen him you love him and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy For you are receiving the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls Thus ends the first reading let us come together now in The reciting of the parts of our faith that we can trust Friends what do we believe I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried the third day. He rose from the dead He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty From this he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church The Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Amen Would you pray with me? Do it as we come together today Remove our doubts about you Help us to trust you more Help us to be curious help us to verify the things that are said by humans, but to fully trust in you Hear us now as we pray those words that your son The risen Lord Our Savior Jesus Christ taught us to pray 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil for that is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever Amen Today's gospel lesson comes from the gospel according to John We are in the 20th chapter verses 19 through 31 Hear now the word of the Lord When it was evening on that day the first day of the week and the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you After he said this he showed them his hands and his side and the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord Rejoiced when they saw the Lord And Jesus said to them again peace be with you As the father has sent me so I send you When he had said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them if you retain the sins of any They are retained But Thomas who was called the twin one of the 12 was not with them when Jesus came So the other disciples told him we have seen the Lord But he said to them unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of The nails and my hand in his side. I will not believe A week later His disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them Although the doors were shut Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you Then he said to Thomas put your finger here and see my hands reach out your hand and put it my side Do not doubt but believe Thomas answered him my lord and my god Jesus said to him. Have you believed because you have seen me Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the messiah the son of god And through that believing You may have life in his name The word of god for us the people of god Thanks be to god Would you pray with me? Dear lord, let us be believers in you and not doubters in our faith help us to Love you help us to Be guided by you and help us to trust in you always Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight Our strength in our redeemer amen Ted lasso is one of my favorite tv shows It follows the namesake character as he runs from his problems at home Across the pond to england He goes from a successful american football coach in kansas to a fish out of water football coach in england He was set up for failure but ends up winning games and hearts with his wit and his charm One of my favorite lines in the show is be curious not judgmental We need more people to be curious and not judgmental We need more people to ask questions and to get to the truth more We need people to question and search for the truth before they spew hate and false information on the internet I found myself wishing for that this week Some of you may remember a few months ago that a united methodist church not too far from here was shut down Abruptly and the locks were changed It made the atlanta news People we know and love were raked over the coals Terrible horrible no good very bad things were said out loud and on the internet for all to see about the united methodist church The south georgia conference and its leadership People that had no affiliation or long since departed affiliation With that church were speaking things that were half true or flat out incorrect They should have been curious and not judgmental They should have asked questions where they spewed lies They should have looked into finding the truth. They should have taken a breath And waited a minute or two to see what the truth actually was Because They should have taken a page from the life of doubting thomas Doubting thomas was doing what ted lasso suggested He was not judgmental of his fellow disciples. He was curious about what they had to say But he did not just take their word for it He trusted in god and verified the humans I think both things are good practices for all of us We need to be curious more about our faith about each other and even about scripture I love it when people ask questions about something i've preached about I love talking through issues of faith and ideas that people have Being curious about each other and our faith is a good thing to do I'm sure thomas was curious when the disciples told him that they had seen the lord But he wanted to verify what they said as well Thomas trusted god He verified what the humans in his life told him trust and verify Also a good practice for us these days It is hard to trust anyone but god fully today Sometimes verifying what we see and read feels almost impossible Political ads seem to contradict each other in the same commercial break News outlets that have a goal of profits and pleasing shareholders cannot be trusted like they used to be Our political leaders talk out of both sides of their mouths constantly Trust is lacking verification is hard We can't just trust people Even news anchors and heads of state When they tell us about the world issues the truth Seems to be elusive I wonder if thomas was thinking about judas and the trust he lost there I wonder if he was curious to see if anyone else was being deceitful I wonder if his verification of the information the disciples gave him was more about His lack of trust in them Than it was in his disbelief about jesus Trust god verify humans And he did just that It took a week But he finally learned from jesus and his appearance That he could not only believe in the risen lord But in his disciples again Thomas answered him my lord and my god Jesus said have you believed because you have seen me Because are the blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe I get it The lesson in scripture is not to doubt god Believe in him even though you can't see him and we do All of us today have to believe that jesus was raised from the dead without seeing his hands and his feet It's I still don't think that thomas Was the unbelieving man that the author of john would have us believe He had to he had just been through a week of betrayal denial and death Thomas like mary magdalene had heard jesus say he was coming back But the other disciples got to see jesus to believe it Can you imagine what that week was like before thomas got to see for himself Can you imagine what the other disciples did to try to convince him for a whole week that he had seen jesus live and in person So when jesus walked through a wall and spoke to thomas He gained trust in his fellow disciples and he could verify for himself What they had been saying all week I think jesus knew that we all these centuries later would need to hear that lesson And that verse of scripture because none of us would get to do the same We have no choice But to trust and believe without seeing It has taken some months But we've finally gotten answers about the church closure It was back on the news and a report was sent to the conference Details can now be shared Details that can now be shared verified what I suspected from the beginning The big bad church those mean nasty church leaders had not Close the church just for fun They had not Changed the locks out of spite or anything else except necessity An employee of the children's center And two other people on the church staff allegedly embezzled 500,000 dollars It was devastating to the church It was difficult for the conference and its leaders The silence was necessary while the invest investigation was ongoing But because I could trust those men and women at the conference I knew that one day I could verify what I thought was happening I chose not to say anything online or get angry. I chose to be curious I chose to wait and verify and trust I wish more people had done that I know now that the truth has come out that those same people who were so hateful When the church was suddenly closed will not be coming back online to retract their terrible horrible no good very bad statements The news outlets are still putting a spin on the story to make it more sensational They were calling the alleged embezzler a church leader That indicates that she was a member of the church and not an employee proving again that we should not we should trust god alone And verify everything a human tells us on the news One thing that we have tried to do in my church From the very beginning is earn the trust of people who want to be a part of the church in any way By our handling of money There's a reason that I only get the mail there are different people That count the money And that our treasurer doesn't get the mail or count the money so she can properly reconcile the books If any of you ever want to know anything about the church finances you can verify it each week with our treasurer She keeps the financial records with her Trust that god has put the right people in place to care for our church and verify what you want to know If the people in the church that closed had been a little more curious If they had trusted god and verified humans Maybe they would still be open But they're certainly not the main ones to blame There are a lot more there's a lot to learn from this church closure We should think before we speak especially online We should be transparent and trustworthy in all aspects of the church And we should verify and ensure that we are in line with the united methodist church book of discipline We should also not judge our leaders before we have the whole story Our bishop and our district superintendent have been caring a lot with this public flogging that they received I'm proud to know them I'm proud to work for and with them And I have no doubt that they have the best interest of the conference and its churches at heart Thomas went on to do great things Thomas went on to do great things in spreading the gospel after his doubts were overcome I'm really curious to see what amazing things we do together as we move toward unification And a future of trust May we be blessed with an indescribable and glorious joy And may the outcome of our faith be the salvation of our souls Amen As we go throughout this week, let us work to trust each other. Let us verify the things that Don't seem to be quite true And let us trust that god will help us know the difference Because in life In death and life beyond death God is with us We are not alone Thanks be to god Amen