Grits and the Gospel - April 14, 2025

Hello friends and welcome to Gritz and the Gospel. My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths and we are together on a Monday which is not normal but it's Holy Week and I have the privilege and honor of preaching at Mulberry Street United Methodist Church for their Holy Week services. You can find those services on their Facebook page and watch them lava. I encourage you to do that if you don't have services at your own church locations every day. They are every single day of Holy Week not just Monday, Thursday or Good Friday and they are done by this year all local preachers who are coming to Mulberry each day to bring a good word for Holy Week and with it being my home church I am so just honored to have been asked to come back again this year and preach on Monday of Holy Week and I am thankful for that opportunity so I thought I would come on here and just put it on here for you and encourage you the rest of the week to go and listen to the other services. So that is why we are here on Monday of Holy Week. So as we come together let us come together in worship the Lord be with you and also with you. Let us pray together. Do Lord I come to you humbled. So humbled that I was given this opportunity to preach the Good Word on Monday of Holy Week on Holy Monday on the march to Easter that we have together. This journey this road that we get to follow your example and your lead through our time and worship. Amen. So this year the Electionary Text for Holy Monday is John 12, 1 through 11. I love the lectenary I have challenged myself to preach to the gospel three or cycle at least one time in my career. There's only been one Sunday where I did not preach the gospel lesson so I think I've done pretty well. I'm not sure why they were so repetitive in the scripture choices of the electionary but here we are. This text today was preached Sunday before last by all of us who adhere to the electionary so if you've heard the scripture preached recently I suggest you get in your tardis or in your de laurion and go back to 1994 to complain to the committee but it did for me though was presenting with a different kind of challenge could I preach the same text this close together with different sermons and the beauty of the electionary was shown once again on different days I was inspired to different messages from the same passage. Here now the words of that passage John 12, 1 through 11. Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany the home of Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard annoying a Jesus his feet and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume but Judas is scary at one of his disciples the one who was about to betray him said why was the perfume not sold for 300 denari and the money given to the poor he said that's not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it. Jesus said leave her alone she bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial you always have the poor with you but you do not always have me. When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there that came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead so the chief priest planned to put Lazarus to death as well since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus. The word of God for us the people of God. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? Let the words of my mouth and the meditation and my heart be acceptable in my sight. Oh Lord my strength and my Redeemer. I love Jesus. He's a man after my own heart. He knows that any good relationship is solidified around a good meal. He knows that every important event should be marked by a celebration with food and fellowship. He eats with sinners to prove a point. He nourishes thousands with wisdom miracles and a fish fry and when he wants to be with friends and take a moment of Sabbath he goes to the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. It is six days before the Passover that meal that would become the last supper that meal that would be the one that started the march to the cross and to the Easter morning that we are all looking forward to celebrating but this meal he chooses to spend with his friends. They had no way of knowing what was really coming in the week ahead but Jesus knew and wanted to start this time in his life with friends. The siblings are falling back into their routine of entertaining. Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead just in case we forgot is lounging with Jesus. Martha is in her typical place serving everyone and Mary is at the feet of Jesus. It's always interesting to me to compare similar stories in scripture. The Luke and John tales of Mary and Martha are similar in a lot of ways whether their home was a frequent stop for Jesus and his disciples to find a little time together or if these two stories are the same occurrence from different perspectives the lesson of being Mary is the same. Mary is criticized in the John text ironically by Judas the one who was in no position to criticize anyone. Judas rebukes her for being wasteful and extravagant. Jesus then turns and rebukes Judas saying leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor with you but you will not always have me. And in Luke when Martha is critical of Mary not for not helping her serve the gaggle of followers invading her home Jesus says Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her. You know when I read something in scripture more than once I tend to take notice and twice we are given this lesson put aside your busyness and sit at the feet of Jesus take time apart to bring your treasured possessions and give them to God and then just sit and learn. These days are time can be our most treasured possession. I'll see it in my own life. I spend so much time reading about Jesus, about mission, about the history of the church, about how to write liturgy and poetry that I don't make enough time to sit and really read about Jesus. I have to force myself to make time to sit still and be still and bring my treasures and my brokenness and my heart to pour out at the feet of the only one who can heal me. I almost feel guilty when I take time for the quiet. When I take time to do something to help my soul heal and prepare to take flight. That is exactly what Jesus tells those gathered that day. This week is such a precious time. Most people love to skip over the somberness and hurt and pain of holy week and go straight for the joy of hunting eggs and roasting oysters. But that's only part of the story. Before we celebrate the resurrection Jesus calls us to stop and come sit at his feet. That's what these services are all about. That's why we are here and while we honor and take time to work toward our Easter moments. I love the eats poetic moment where he says nothing but stillness can remain when hearts are full. Our Mary moment is only possible when our hearts are full. We cannot achieve that stillness that we so desire and crave in this crazy busy world until we find some time to be with the one that can fill our hearts with love and joy. I am a Martha. I come from a long line of Martha's. I serve. I get distracted by all the preparations that need to be made. Sometimes I'm even Lazarus. I lounge around and then I feel guilty that I'm not doing the Martha things. I make lists in my head of all the things I have to accomplish and then I lose sleep thinking about all I have to get done. But this week especially I need to remember to be Mary. I need to make being at the feet of Jesus a habit and not a rarity. I need not to have to be reminded to take time to worship and be still to listen rather than to work to find stillness in a full heart. I love these services so much. I'm humbled to have been asked to be a part of them. I'm grateful that I get to stand on the Katie box that they dusted off for me and look out on the pews that I occupied for so many years. But most of all I'm thankful that I got to take a minute and come sit and be still and empty mouth treasures at the feet of Jesus. Learn and write and grow in my faith as I journey to the cross. This time in John when Jesus chose to spend time with his friends was the beginning of the end of his time here on earth. He wanted to treasure these moments and Mary was the one who really understood how precious this time was. This week as we worship together let us learn from Mary and remember that as well. Amen. As you go throughout the rest of your holy week it is my hope and prayer that you find every day moments of stillness. Moments to have your heart filled with the spirit. Moments to remember the hard things as well as the joys because in life and death and life beyond death. God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.