Grits and the Gospel - August 2, 2026

Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of grits in the gospel My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths, and I'm excited to be with you today We're having a full-on WWE moment this morning with tiny baby kitten and so Here's hoping that we will be able to Make it through this recording It is so fun to share little bits of life here in the woods with you. It is so fun That so many people love my animals and love My little animal family, so thank you for being patient with us today as always It's wild around here as you know, so we We will come together now in a time of worship on this 10th Sunday after Pentecost the second anniversary of the founding of st. Paul Chapel United Methodist Church and On the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad with it in it the Lord be with you and also with you Today's epistle lesson comes from Romans It is in the 15th chapter verses 5 through 9 here now the word of the Lord May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus So that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of your Lord Jesus Christ Welcome one another therefore just as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God In order that he might confirm the promises given to the ancestors and that the Gentiles might go or might glorify God For his mercy The word of God for us the people of God. Thanks be to God Let us come together now and recite those words that remind us of the tenets of the faith that is open and welcome to all 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 For from thence 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. I'm in let us pray together dear Lord. We come to you today Looking for new and better and different and more holy ways to welcome all To this church and to the body of Christ we look to you for inspiration for guidance and for Opportunity Hear us now as we pray those words that your son 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 thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever Amen Today's gospel lesson comes to us from the gospel according to Matthew We are in the 10th chapter verses 40 through 42 here now the word of the Lord Whoever welcomes you Welcomes me and whoever welcomes me Welcomes the one who sent me Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward Whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the Righteous and whoever gives up even a cup of water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple Truly I tell you None of these will lose their reward The word of God for us the people of God Thanks be To God would you pray with me do or we come to you today and I needed to hear this lesson It is my hope and prayer that others who hear it will be as touched by it and moved by it and challenged by it as I am Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in my sight. Oh Lord our strength is our strength and our Redeemer Amen Every good southern woman has that recipe The one she keeps in the freezer in case of a hospitality emergency You know the one if someone dies gets married has a baby or moves into the neighborhood every southern lady has that thing That they take for the occasion For my grandmother gogi. It was her very famous cheese muffins I've talked about them some before but I don't think you fully understand the power of the cheese muffin. I Have a bowl the bowl and the spoon that she used to make them. She made so many batches of cheese muffins over the years That the spoon is worn down to match the curve of the bottom of the bowl there was always a container of them in her freezer because as she wrote on Every giveaway pan label of them. They freeze beautifully It was a badge of honor to be on her Christmas cheese muffin list They were at every meal. I ever ate at her house ever As she got older I started grating the cheese and stirring the batter for because you simply could not use the pre-grated stuff When I moved back to Macon into the Upshaw's carriage house and around the corner from her She called me one day and she said we need to make the Upshaw's some cheese muffins I gently reminded her that I was the one that had actually moved Shouldn't I get this batch? To which she replied. Well, they took you in So they need them more You felt special you felt loved you felt welcome at her home and her neighborhood and her life Because she took the time To make her favorite dish for you I took some liberties with the lectionary this week for everyone who keeps up with the lectionary and Reads it before they come to church Proof texting is generally a bad practice Proof texting is picking scripture to fit what you want it to say and not Listening to what God is trying to tell you and I don't think that's what this is I looked at the lectionary for this week and lo and behold it was the gospel lesson that I used last week about abundance Jesus feeding the 5,000 men So I went back and looked at the lectionary text from the weeks that we skipped to do our summer sermon series When this text really spoke to me for the second anniversary sunday And it really reminded me more of the roman's passage that we read today than the other lectionary texts that have traditionally been paired with it So I feel like I made my own lectionary instead of proof texting They really should have consulted me before they did the lectionary texts If you don't mind I think I'll use all three passages this week a little bit A little bit When one word is used six times in three verses I think it means that it is something that we should pay attention to The word decimi means to welcome or to receive or to accept I like some of the other definitions too to gain knowledge of to admit to embrace Things All of these things are actions things we are called to do To welcome christ to welcome the righteous to welcome the prophet and to welcome those who simply need a cup of water But I feel like that is just the beginning Those are pretty broad categories those encompass a lot of different groups of people. Oh wait Yeah We should probably do that But even in the early church, they struggled with the idea. They only wanted to welcome to be a faith community With people that literally looked like them and had the same background that they did The same lineage and history was what they wanted in their church But paul reminds them that they are to be welcoming to everyone including the Gentiles In this passage in romans the word welcome is Proslimbano Which means to take a side to take along to partake to welcome accept I love those two different words used for the idea of being welcoming. I think they're both Important We are called to receive and accept those in need those who are physically thirsty But also those who thirst for faith and acceptance in a faith community And we are then called to welcome them and take them along with us We are not simply called to fill their needs but to have them as companions on the journey of faith We are called to give them what they need for survival and then make them a welcome part of our community No matter their background no matter their family tree no matter if they are jews or gentiles no matter What the world tells us should separate us. We are called to welcome people And to bring them alongside us Instead of being welcoming we seem to have divided ourselves in many different ways today in this country along political lines race Sexual orientation gender if you can name a demographic we can find a way to divide people over it Even denominations i've done it There are some faith communities that I want to put quotes around because they don't believe what I do and i'm always right And they are wrong We try and make This place one of being welcoming and acceptance We do a really good job I hope that everyone that walks in these doors feels welcome, but we cannot be complacent One of my favorite congregation members spoke about our church one time They said this understand this we welcome anyone that walks in the door No matter their lifestyle or what choices they have made and if you can't do that, we don't want you And everything they said was true and wrapped in a very direct package It's hard to be welcoming to the mean people We want to protect the people that have been hurt by the world and the church that come to join us here If the president of the southern baptist convention who I went to college with by the way walked in the doors of our church Would we really deep down in the cockles of our heart want him to be here? If political pundits who spew lies and have truths and create division in this world walked into our country Would we want them here? If the secretary of war Walked in here Would we welcome him as much as we welcome everyone else? friends they are thirsty They may not admit it or want to acknowledge it but they need Jesus They thirst for righteousness, even if they can't see it. They need to be here And sit next to and worship with people that are different than they are They need to be here To see what it looks like to welcome people and bring them into our family of believers They need to be here To see what loving people who are not like you looks like and feels like and loves like I think we do a wonderful job of making people feel welcome here And a big part of that is because a lot of us are made to feel unwelcome other places We can sympathize and empathize with people We have created a safe space for people to gather and worship As we look at our third year of existence What I keep thinking about is the people who don't necessarily want To see how god is working in this place but need To see how god is working in this place They need to see the kingdom of god in this place How can we continue to show it to them? One of the ways that jesus made people feel welcome and cared for was over a meal He used gathering at the table to build community and to show his love he preached To the masses and then the disciples came to him and said let them go and feed themselves and in matthew 1416 jesus said to them they need not go away You give them something to eat And while he know he meant dinner He also meant the bread of life And that's what we try our very best to do here To feed ourselves And to feed the masses not just actual nourishment but we feed people's souls everyone's soul We try to live Out that anthem that we heard today everyone's a little broken and everyone belongs We want a table so crowded that we have to scooch over to make room for more people My grandmother's cheese muffins had just four ingredients Butter lots of butter sour cream self-rising flour And freshly grated cheese They're simple to make They're easy to bake And they freeze and reheat beautifully Try as I might to make them today They are just not the same I watched her make Hundreds of them over the years if not thousands. I think I know what the difference is When gogi put the batter in those little mini muffin tins she gently touched the top of each one of them and I think That in some beautiful and magical way she was giving them a little extra love Her welcoming was unique and special to her Just like our welcoming here at st. Paul chapel is unique and special to us No other church No other local church. No other united methodist congregation Has the same love and unique personalities And welcoming spirit that we do God wants us to use that As we move into the future god wants this to be a place where everyone and she means everyone Feels welcome And is brought alongside us There is nothing more sacred Than coming alongside each other At a crowded table i'm in As we go throughout our week Let us look for ways To be a part of a crowded table where everyone's a little broken and where everyone belongs Where everyone is welcome And everyone is fed Because in life in death In life beyond death God is with us We are not alone Thanks be to god I'm in