Grits and the Gospel - August 9, 2026

My friends and welcome to this week's episode of grits in the gospel My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths. It is good to be with you today on this 11th Sunday after Pentecost As always I want to mention that I'm surrounded by sweet fur babies some of whom have decided to Wedge themselves behind me and snore if you can guess who that is, that would be Maggie some of whom are You hear some who are Sleeping soundly beside me So we hope we can get through today's episode without it being too distracting We love our fur babies just as much as we love our human friends. We love our four-legged loves As much as our two-legged Friends and family, so thank you for loving my sweet fur babies as much as I do Let us come together now in a time of worship the Lord be with you and also with you Today's lesson from the psalm is a psalm of praise. It is psalm 105 Verses 1 through 6 and then ending in verse 45 Hear now the word of the lord Oh give thanks to the lord call on his name make known his deeds among the peoples sing to him Sing praises to him tell of all his wonderful works Glory in his holy name let the hearts of those who seek the lord rejoice Seek the lord and his strength seek his presence continually Remember the wonderful works. He has done his miracles and the judgments he uttered Oh offspring of a servant servant abraham children of jacob His chosen ones Praise the lord The word of god for us the people of god. Thanks be to god We come together now in a time of remembrance of the things that we trust and believe in those tenets of our faith Friends, what do we believe? I believe in god the father almighty Maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ is only son our lord Who was conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin mary Suffered under punctus pilot 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 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 amen Would you pray with me? To lord when it feels like the wind is never going to stop blowing us around Making us feel like We are stuck in the middle of a hurricane Help us to remember that you are The calm in the storm You are the one we should look to and believe in and trust Help us to remember that every day on the days where a simple breeze Is blowing and the days when the winds seem so strong That they're going to knock us down Hear us now as we pray those words that your son 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 trespass 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 the 14th chapter verses 22 through 33 here now the word of the lord Immediately He made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side While he dismissed the crowds And after he dismissed the crowds he went up the mountain by himself to pray and when evening came he was there alone But by this time the boat battered by the waves was far from land for the wind Was against them And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified saying it's a ghost And they cried out in fear but immediately Jesus spoke to them and said take heart. It is I do not be afraid And peter answered him lord if it is you Command me to come to you on the water He said come So peter got out of the boat Started walking on the water and came toward jesus But when he noticed the strong wind he became frightened and began to sink and he cried out lord Save me And jesus immediately reached out his hand and called him saying to him you of little faith Why do you doubt? When they got into the boat the wind ceased And those in the boat worshiped him saying Truly you are the son of god The word of god for us the people of god Thanks be to god Would you pray with me dear lord this message was so important for me in my life at this moment I hope that it will be just as important for someone else to hear Today Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight. Oh lord Our strength in our redeemer i'm in Have you ever played those get to know you games? True two truths and a lie is one of my favorites My two truths are usually that I have a secret service file And then I have been skydiving Neither of which most people can believe Both of them actually revolve around my time in politics back when I was young and still had tons of energy I had just worked for a now retired senator on a successful campaign We had the vp down to go on a campaign stop with us and the secret service had to open files on all the staff I assume it was a very exciting read for all of those who had to study me Once we had won the race the campaign staff went skydiving to celebrate It was one of the most wild and wonderful experiences i've ever had and if I could do it again I would well Maybe It's a crazy story. The campaign staff went together to a place north of atlanta And did all of the safety training. I met the guy that was going to be strapped to my back And I had and have my life in his hands We got into this little plane with no seats and strapped ourselves to the floor for the journey up into the sky We were about to taxi to the runway when we all heard the pilot screaming get out get out We all jumped back out of the plane before it had moved an inch It turns out that the plane's engine had caught on fire when they started it Once they had the situation under control we piled back in the plane and took off Yep, I got back in the plane that had just caught on fire But it was the skydiving that was the best part It was several minutes of sheer terror free falling that immediately turned into the most peaceful journey to the earth under canopy When so strong that my face was distorted that moved to a time of utter silence And peace When people hear this passage they tend to focus on the walking on water And it is absolutely miraculous The closest thing I can think of in our modern experience will be trying to water ski july 4th weekend on lake blackshear No one in their right mind would do it Tubing sure floating at the dock is even a challenge But you have to be out of your mind to put a ski on at 2 pm on a 4th july 4th at the lake And that's the calm side of the storms that the sea of gallilee had If you're going to go fish or ski or walk on water you want to do it about september 10th Which is a thursday early in the morning when the water is like Blast it is the wind The howling and the water moving wind That makes the miracle more amazing and makes the calming more obvious Verse 24 says by the time The boat battered by the waves was far from the land for the wind Was against them The waves were battering and the wind was against them anyone feel like that in life If anyone feel like they are battered that the wind is against them that they are falling so fast that the wind is distorting Your face and even your heart What happens next may seem to be unreal? But jesus comes to them in this unbelievable way He walks across these wind swept waves to help calm them Of course they don't recognize him they may not have called it physics But the disciples are smart enough to know that the laws of physics in the real world dictate that you cannot walk on water It is physically impossible for a human to do Even when they hear his voice they don't believe that it's jesus walking on the walking to them on the water Maybe the wind was so loud that it distorted his voice Maybe it was still just too unbelievable to fully grasp what they were seeing Peter had just enough bravery or maybe it was ego to think hey I got this And he challenges jesus to prove himself by letting him walk with him But it wasn't the act of walking on water that scared him It wasn't the waves that were still crashing around them It wasn't that it was dark and scary and stormy that god in verse 30 says But when he noticed the strong wind He became frightened and beginning to sink he cried out lord save me It was the strong wind trying to knock him down that made him sink People tend to focus on the miracle of walking on water and don't see That it was the wind The simple everyday natural occurrence of the wind that scared him the most That was the reality of what was happening to him It was hard to ignore the wind and stay focused on jesus It's hard to keep focused on that one thing that can and does continue to save us It is easy to get distracted by the winds that try to knock us down If we could just stay focused on jesus Then it would never matter how much the wind blew or how high the waves were We would never sink But we're human It's really hard to do that all the time Thank goodness jesus stays there in front of us all the time So when we are tossed about all we have to do is refocus on him Jesus immediately reached out his hand and called him saying You have little faith Why did you doubt? When they got into the boat and the wind ceased and those in the boat worshiped him Saying truly you are the son of god They didn't really get it until the wind ceases Until they trusted and refocused on jesus and took his hand and came back out of the water They didn't fully see that the son of god was standing in front of them the whole time the danger was gone Peter was not sinking the disciples were with jesus in the boat safely, but the wind had not ceased So they were still afraid The wind around them had to stop before they realized that they were already safe Their faces had to quit flapping in the breeze before they knew that they were looking at the face of god Just like skydiving When you come through the tear of free falling to a place where the wind is helping you Where the storms have subsided and the wind is guiding you instead of scaring you you can find peace You can be inspired by the beauty of the earth from a whole different perspective you can marvel At the god that is always standing in front of you showing himself to you and the peace and in the storm And the beauty of his creation And in the slow fall to the earth And the quiet protective canopy of the parachute Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane? It's the question I got when I returned to life on earth It is the question I still get when I share the story I mean to begin with the plane was not perfectly good By the time we were ready to jump it wasn't a hard decision because I would choose jumping over fiery inferno any day For years my brother kept a picture of me skydiving in his office at work He said that he was nervous about something he would look at it and think if my sister could jump out of a plane I can do anything But now that i've experienced one comes after the heart-stopping terror After the fear of the strong wind I would do it over and over again To get to the most peaceful and beautiful and quiet time I have ever experienced The view was amazing It was amazing when I was free falling and it was amazing when I was under canopy But when I was falling very rapidly Out of the plane I was so distracted by the wind that I couldn't see the beautiful miracle of a fall mountain view It didn't change the view when the peacefulness came but I was no longer distracted by the chaos In those minutes of terror Life can be a similar experience God wants you to ignore the chaos and focus on the miracles around you ignore The wind and the waves and see the beauty of life peter and the disciples had a similar experience They needed to look beyond the storm to see that a man was walking on water They had to believe in and trust jesus so they could get to the point in life Where the wind ceases? Jesus didn't cease the wind until it had blown peter around a little bit and he learned the lesson and until he believed Once he believed jesus calmed the wind The wind will always Blow the storms will always come jesus will always be right in front of us wanting us to trust That he will get us through anything that life throws at us any diagnosis Any hard lesson we are learning any difficult family or work or life situation jesus is there? Wanting to be the thing we look to in the midst of the howling wind And in the calm and the peace The question is Will you trust that you're safe with your faith? Even before the wind stops blowing I'm in When we go out into this world and the wind tries to blow us around Let us remember to stay focused on Jesus this week As we look to find our neighbors and friends that are in the boat Terrified of the wind as well So we can all get through it together Because in life In death in life beyond death god is with us We are not alone Thanks be to god Amen