Grits and the Gospel - February 23, 2025

Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of Grits in the Gospel. My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths and I am so excited to be with you this week, this seventh Sunday of Epiphany as we move toward Lent In Easter those days are getting closer and closer The year has flown by and I'm so thankful to be on this electionary journey with you. Let us come together now in a time of worship the Lord be with you and also with you Today's Old Testament lesson comes from the Psalms We are in Psalm 37 verses one through eleven and then we will move to verses 39 and 40 See the foreshadowing and the words of hope that we find in this Psalm Here now the word of the Lord Do not fret because of the wicked do not be envious of wrongdoers for they will soon fade like the grass and weather like the herb trust in the Lord and do good live in the land and enjoy security Delight and the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart Commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will act He will make your vindication shine like the light and the justice of your calls like the noon day Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him Do not fret over those who prosper in their way over those who carry out evil devices refrain from anger and forsake wrath Do not fret it leads only to evil For the wicked shall be cut off but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land Yet a little while and the wicked will be no more Though you look diligently for their place they will not be there But the meat shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their refuge and the time of trouble The Lord helps them and rescues them He rescues them from the wicked And saves them because he take they take refuge in him The word of God for us the people of God Thanks me to God Let us say together now the words of our faith 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 siteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty From thence 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 do Lord we come together today To pray for our enemies To pray for the ones that do us harm That they ultimately will see your light and love Shining brightly in and through us So that their darkness may be overcome by your light Hear us now as we pray those words that your son taught us to pray our Father Who art in heaven? Hello, it'd 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 Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever Amen Here know the words of the gospel lesson for today we remain in loop chapter six We are in verses 27 through 38 here now the word of the Lord But I say to you who are listening Love your enemies Do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you If anyone strikes you on the cheek offer the other also And from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt Give to everyone who ask of you And if anyone takes away what is yours do not ask for it back again Do to others as you would have them do to you If you love those who love you Yeah, I lost my place If you love those who love you what credit is that to you for even centers love those who love them If you do good to those who do good to you What credit is that to you for even centers do the same if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment What credit is that for you even centers lend to centers to receive as much again instead Love your enemies do good And lend expecting nothing in return Your reward will be great and you will be children of the most high for he himself Is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked Be merciful just as your father is merciful Do not judge and you will not be judged do not condemn and you will not be condemned Forgive and you will be forgiven Give and it will be given unto you a good measure Press down shaken together running over will be put into your lap For the measure you give will be the measure you get back The word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God would you pray with me Do Lord this week This lesson is not one that I wanted to hear it's when I needed To hear May it be so for others But the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and my sight oh Lord I strengthen my Redeemer Amen Look no disrespect to Jesus, but I'm tired of turning the other cheek My cheeks hurt My cheeks are red and chapped both of them I never thought that I would get slapped around so much by people especially Those that I thought were friends I get slapped around for my gender my job and my religion just to name a few things But here we are folks I did not want to write this sermon this week I know as a preacher I'm supposed to tell you to live as Jesus did But it's not always what I want to do myself It's draining and hard And tiring and it makes my cheeks hurt Ultimately Jesus did more than just turn the other cheek He gave his life for us He let his enemies put him on the cross He did it willingly If he can do that The least I can do is be kind to my enemies The least we can do is Be kind to those who hate us those who mistreat us But these things these days it's hard for me to say those things and mean them with my whole heart I mean, I know it's what we're called to do and don't get me wrong. I want to do it But the reality of life outside of these walls is not very nice these days And Jesus doesn't let it go either He talks not only of loving our enemies and turning the other cheek The other cheek but he keeps going that pesky Golden rule being merciful and not judging or right here together just to drive home the point But he doesn't know how bad it is right now. He doesn't know how much people hurt each other emotionally and even physically sometimes How can we love those who do not like us But seek us out to do us harm He doesn't realize for us mere mortals that it is exhausting To work to feel safe some days But the truth is he does now He understands He tells us all of these things to help us and to show us the way of the righteous And just when I'm feeling bad for myself I'm reminded that there are whole groups of people who have lived this way with these feelings At the margins with only Jesus on their side for centuries There are there are people who have had enemies who owned them There are people who have been surrounded by those who persecute and hate them And prison camps in Germany and in slave quarters in the south They survived Maybe I can too What lessons can we learn from them from Jesus From our own scars that have healed as we have learned to love those who do not show us love I don't know if y'all have guessed it yet, but I love the written word I love poetry and I love letters I love reading first-hand accounts of history through the writings of the time When place I find those is a sub-stack account called letters of note They print historical letters and excerpts from a wide variety of places The first letter I ever read on the site was for my New Testament class The letter is one of my favorites and is the perfect reflection of how Jesus calls us To love those who persecute us But doesn't necessarily call us to remain victims of hate He calls us to show mercy in a different way of living Jordan Anderson and his wife Mandy were freed from slavery by the Union Army after serving 32 years on a plantation in Tennessee They moved to Ohio in 1864 and in 1865 Jordan received a letter from his former master Colonel P. H. Anderson asking him to return to Tennessee to work on the plantation where he was formally enslaved Here are some excerpts from his response They know how August 7th 1865 to my old master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee Sir, I got your letter and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jordan and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again promising to do better for me than anybody else could can I have often felt uneasy about you I thought the Yankees would have hung you before long before this For harboring ribs they found at your house I suppose they never heard about you going to Colonel Martins to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable Although you shot at me twice before I left you I did not want to hear of your being hurt And I'm glad you're still living I would have gone back to see you all when I was working at the Nashville hospital But one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance If there ever was a definition of loving from afar this would be it While there is much sarcasm to be had in the letter There's also kindness Even though the Colonel tried to kill him He does not wish him ill Jordan goes on and speaks of his faith and all of the time he and his family spend in church and in prayer He's been praying for his enemy I'm sure the Colonel was not easy to pray for If Jordan can do it, I think I can too The letter continues Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly And we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages from the time we served you This will make us forget and forgive old scores and rely on your justice and friendship in the future I Served you faithfully for 32 years and Mandy 20 years At $25 a month for me and $2 a week for Mandy our earnings would amount to $11,680 And to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back and deduct what you paid for our clothing And three doctors visits to me and pulling a tooth for Mandy And the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to Please send the money by Adam's Express in care of VWENTERS Esquire date, no, Hiho If you failed to pay for faithful labors in the past We can have little faith in your promise in the future We trust the good maker has opened your eyes To the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers and making us toil for you for generations without recompense Here I draw my wages every Saturday night, but in Tennessee There was never a payday for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the labor of his hire Turning the other cheek does not mean remaining a victim of hatred It is now not mean allowing people to hurt you continually It means we love people We pray for them We are fair to them even when they are not fair to us. I don't know about you And that makes me feel better about Machikes Jesus doesn't say to remain in or return to harmful situations Jesus says to love until it hurts love and love and love some more We have to forgive and love and be patient with those who intend to do us harm sometimes The one we have to love and forgive is the one that is looking back at us in the mirror Sometimes even when we don't mean to we are the ones that do harm Forgiving ourselves means we have to admit that we are all fallible That we are all in need of love and kindness that we all fall short and need forgiveness and care Forgiving ourselves is often harder than forgiving our enemies Have you ever heard the saying hurt people hurt people The only way to heal the hurt and keep more evil and hatred from spreading is to stop that original hurt That is what we are called to do Love the hurt people Including ourselves until we quit hurting others All of these lessons are sometimes easier said than done, but do them we must How much change could we cause in the world if we just love people Especially those who are unloved and feel unlovable We all lived by the golden rule if we all learned from the time when we did harm if we all learned to forgive and love and care for others For each other Instead of doing harm and causing pain Then there would be no need for the churning of any cheeks at all Our cheeks would be rosy and full from laughter and love instead of chat from being turned and hurt What a wonderful world that would be So yeah Jesus is right No matter how much I avoided right in this sermon this week he is still right No matter how tired I am of being ridiculed no matter how much I beat myself up No matter how tired I am of what's happening on the news no matter how cheap how chapped my cheeks are I Am called to love I'm called to show love even when it hurts Because that is sometimes the only way that people can truly see the love of God reflected in me This is one of those weeks where I needed the lesson more than anyone that will hear it I'm glad I heard it I'm thankful for the reminder I had to give forgive myself for a few things And I need to love the people in my life even the ones that need some boundaries Sometimes the boundaries are where we love the best Jordan set some pretty clear boundaries with the kernel Because he loved his family and was trying to love the one that was his enemy He set those boundaries pretty strictly I wonder if the kernel got the hint If not I bet he gets it in the end to love your neighbor turn the other cheek Love the people who do you harm so they may one day quit doing harm at all The letter ends this way PS Say howdy to George Carter and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me From your old servant Jordan Anderson Lord helps them and rescues them He rescues them from the wicked And saves them because they take refuge in him I'm in It's a tough lesson this week One that's sometimes hard to hear But one that we need to hear Love Everyone Even the ones that don't love us back And life and death and life beyond death God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.