Grits and the Gospel - August 30, 2026

Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of Grits in the Gospel. My name is Rev. Katie Griffiths. It's really good to be with you today. It is August 30th and we are at the 14th Sunday after Pentecost and it's been a really good week. I was with my ordination group this week and we talked a lot about calling and what it means to follow Jesus. So this sermon and this scripture is particularly poignant for me this week as I have been studying with my people. So I'm glad to be with you today. All the animals are awake so you won't probably hear Maggie snoring like apparently you did last week. So we'll see how this goes but as always everyone here at the Griffiths House loves you and appreciates you and appreciates that you join us every week to learn and worship together. Let us come together now in a time of worship. The Lord be with you and also with you. Today's first reading is from the lesson or the letter to the Romans. It's our epistle lesson. It is from chapter 12 verses 9 through 21. Hear now the word of the Lord. Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with mutual affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal. Be ardent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in afflictions. Persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints. Pursue hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be arrogant but associate with the lowly. Do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil but take thought for what is noble and the sight of all if it is possible. So far as it depends on you live peaceably with all. Beloved never avenge yourselves but leave room for the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord instead if your enemies are hungry feed them if they are thirsty give them something to drink but by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Thus ends the first reading let us come together now and remind ourselves of those things that are the basis of our faith the tenets of our belief the reason that we do good works. 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 let us pray together dear lord it is not always easy to follow you it is easy to be loved by you it is not always easy to love it is easy to believe in you it is not always easy to believe in our neighbors and those around us it is easy to be people of faith until we have to go out and make ourselves vulnerable and show our faith to others help us be bold and brave in all we do and showing you throughout the world hear us now as we pray those words that your son our lord and savior 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 from the gospel according to matthew we are in matthew 16 verses 21 through 21 8 here now the word of the lord from that time on jesus began to show his disciples that he must go and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised and peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying god forbid it lord this must never happen to you but he turned and said to peter get behind me satan your hindrance to me for you're setting your mind on not on divine things but on human things and then jesus told his disciples if any wish to come after me let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me for those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will find it for what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life or what will they give in return for their life for the son of man is to come with his angels and the glory of his father and then he will repay everyone for what has been done truly i tell you there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the son of man coming in his kingdom the word of god for us the people of god thanks be to god would you pray with me dear lord we come to you now just humbled at what it means to follow jesus to love jesus to live a life of faith and kindness and hope hear us now as we come together hear our hearts help us to be in good relationship with you let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in my sight oh lord our strength and our redeemer amen in 1955 poet ee cummings replied to a high school student's request for advice about becoming a poet the following letter was sent in response and was printed in the local paper titled a poet's advice to students the advice is applicable across many different areas of life when you hear it today try to see it through the lens of your own calling and faith a poet is somebody who feels and who expresses his feelings through words this may sound easy it isn't a lot of people think or believe or know they feel but that's thinking or believing or knowing not feeling and poetry is feeling not knowing or believing or thinking almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know but not a single human being can be taught to feel why because whenever you think or you believe or you know you're a lot of other people but the moment you're you feel you're nobody but yourself and to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting as for expressing nobody but yourself in words that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn't a poet can't possibly imagine why because nothing is quite as easy as using the words like some using words like somebody else we all of us do exactly this nearly all of the time and whenever we do it we're not poets if at the end of your first 10 or 15 years of fighting and working and feeling you find you've written one line of poem one line of one poem you'll be very lucky indeed and so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is do something easy like learning how to blow up the world unless you're not only willing but glad to feel and work and fight till you die does that sound dismal it isn't it's the most wonderful life on earth or so i feel get behind me satan you're a hindrance to me even jesus had people too who tried to hinder his ministry the pharisees the sadducees the doubters government officials even people in his own circle could get in the way of his life of ministry and mission that jesus was living out take up your cross and follow me as a catchy phrase but in reality it's not all that easy to do paul outlines a lot of what it looks like to follow jesus in the letter to the romans there are some fairly easy instructions love genuinely rejoice and hope rejoice with those who are rejoicing thus ends the list of easy stuff the rest of it well it's a lot more difficult in reality the words are easy to read but the execution of the ideas is not so easy especially when there are hindrances unto one another in an outdo sorry outdo one another in showing honor do not lag in zeal be ardent in spirit be patient and afflictions bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse them weep with those who weep live in harmony with one another do not be arrogant but associate with the lowly do not claim to be wiser than you are do not repay anyone evil for evil but take thought for what is noble and the sight of all if it is possible so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all i mean that sounds great and all but really no thanks if that's what it means to be a follower of christ and i'm tapping out i don't want to weep just being nice to all of the people around us really mean all of them because some of them are mean i'm really wise and no one can tell me any different and forget blessing the people who persecute me no way they hurt my feelings and i cannot and will not bless them unless i'm blessing their heart i don't think ee would mind too much but these passages today remind me so much of what he said about writing poetry and if i may take liberty with his words i would change the first two lines to this a believer is somebody who feels and who expresses his feelings through actions this may sound easy it isn't these feelings that we have as believers have for god for our faith and for each other should be expressed through actions feelings are hard enough but being vulnerable enough to express them and show them to the world through our actions is very hard being vulnerable and opening up to the people to people all people whether they like us or not means we are opening up ourselves to hurt and ridicule and many hindrances that is what god did for us when he created us he made this whole world and made us with free will that we have by becoming vulnerable to god's own creation rejection and hurt are always what can happen being related in relationship with a human even for god means that there are good and bad things that can come of it loving your enemy means loving someone who does not like you very much much that's the example that god set for us and jesus lived out for us jesus loved everyone even the soldiers that nailed him to the cross we are called to carry they just didn't love him back but that was never the qualification for god to offer them saving grace living that same calling out in our own lives is hard very very hard the line that really gets me in the cummings letter is when he said that the moment you feel you're nobody but yourself the moment you accept and live out your own calling to do all of those things listed in romans to be a faithful example of christ with your own personal set of gifts and graces you let the world see who you really are this may sound easy it isn't as ee says the world is trying to make you like everyone else we try to blend in we try to look like and dress like and act like everyone else so we don't get ridiculed but that's not how god made us god made us to be beautiful and unique and have our own personal relationship with our with god one that is like our fingerprint or the number of hairs on our head our calling our relationship with god should not blend in it should not be the same as everyone else's it is ours and ours alone and we should not try to make everyone love and feel god the way we do but we should show others god's love so they can cultivate their own relationship with god that is beautiful and unique for them them we should write our own lines of poetry so others can go out and write for themselves i love how john wesley puts it in his sermon on providence he says that we are not mechanical we are not created as machines that only do one thing when i first got the calling to ministry one of my favorite pastors and dearest friends chip strickland told me this if you can do anything else in this world at all do that but if you can't bring yourself to do anything else then be a minister i didn't get it at first i do now any calling whether it's teaching or the law or moving dirt or growing trees is not for the faint of heart you have to want to do that and nothing else you have to be passionate and obsessive about your calling because the great dolly parton said find out who you are and do it on purpose you have to be purposeful in your faith and your calling they go hand and hand when you have a relationship with god then your calling will shine brightly e.e. cummings likened poetry to writing to fighting to the death i mean that seems slightly a slightly bit bit too dramatic but i get the point if you're willing to fight for your calling for your faith for your mission then do that he says this at the end and so my advice to all young people who wish to become a poet is do something easy like learning how to blow up the world unless you're not only willing but glad to feel and work and fight till you die does that sound dismal it isn't it's the most wonderful life on earth or so i feel being a believer being a part of a congregation being a part of the united methodist church sometimes feels like it's harder than figuring out how to blow up the entire world and sometimes being a believer bringing so much ridicule that blowing up the world seems a better alternative take up your cross and follow me seven words that are easy to say but harder to execute doing it however is not dismal it is in fact the most wonderful life on earth it's quite heavenly i'm in as you go out in the world this week make sure you are making yourself vulnerable to those around you showing your true heart so they can feel confident enough to share theirs because in life and death and life beyond death god is with us we are never alone thanks be to god amen