Grits and the Gospel - July 12, 2026

Hello 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 on the seventh Sunday after Pentecost This Sunday we are continuing our submissions from our members And this one was kind of sent as a joke Ish my Music ministers husband jokingly who's also part of our music team jokingly said First Timothy to I suffer unto women who teach because he has a wife who's a preacher and One of his wife's several of his wife's best friends are preachers. So he does in his own way suffer under women Preachers, but I mean he meant it as a joke, but there are many many people out there who do not and so I'm happy to face this one head on this week It is a great one next week. We will do something more tender and talk about the natural world Isaiah 55 12 talking about the earth rejoicing And praising God Was submitted so that will be a fun one to look at as well But this week we look at second Timothy to and The issues that come there and I'm happy that you are here with me on this journey And I think it's important that we do that together so let us come together now on a time of worship the Lord be with you and Also with you Today's epistle lesson is from the letter to Timothy the first letter to Timothy It is in the second chapter verses 8 through 15 here now the words of Paul I Desire then that in every place the men should pray lifting up holy hands without anger or argument Also that the women should dress themselves in moderate clothing with reverence and self-control Not with their hair braided or with good gold pearls or expensive clothes But with good works as is it is proper for women to profess reverence for God Let a woman learn in silence with full submission I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man She is to keep silent For Adam was formed first then Eve and Adam was not deceived But the woman was deceived and became a transgressor Yet, she will be saved through childbearing Provided they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control Thus ends the first reading Let us come together now and be reminded of those things that are 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 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 Would you pray with me to the Lord be with us today as we hear these words and this message Help us to grow in our own faith in Jesus and not idolize men Help us to see you reflected in all of us in each one of our callings and in each one of our bodies 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 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 27th chapter the verses 50 through 56 Hear now the story of the death and resurrection or the death of Jesus on the cross Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and breathed his last At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom The earth shook and the rocks were split the tombs also were open and many bodies of the saints Who had fallen asleep were raised? After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many Now when the centurion and those with him who were keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place They were terrified and said truly this man was God's son Many women were also there looking on from a distance they had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee the word of God For us the people of God Thanks be to God. I Have been accused of hating men Sometimes by people in my own church and I get it. We live in a very ideal world here in these walls It is good to be with open and affirming and loving people But my church is not representative of most of the people I live near I wish it was But unfortunately, it is not So let me say before we get started with this sermon that I do not hate all men. I Do not hate any men who worship at that church or are my friends because They are men of character and gentleness and I promise you If you ask the women who are sitting in the pews with you, no matter what church are in We would all agree that the men in the world outside are nothing like the kind and funny and accepting and safe men that we worship with and We challenge you those good men Not just to continue to be those good men that we know you are but to hold others around you accountable when they are not as We will do today with the men of first Timothy Would you pray with me? Do Lord open our hearts and our eyes and our minds to the things which you and you alone? Say are true help those who Pick and choose what they want to believe of your words See the full scope and life and breadth of Scripture Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts to be acceptable in thy sight Oh Lord our strength and our Redeemer imagine the letters one has written out into the world the letters received back in turn are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle or a better metaphor if dated the links of a long chain and Even if those links are never put back together, which they certainly will never be Even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seed of A dying dandelion isn't there something wonderful in that to think that the story of one's life is preserved in some way That this very letter may one day mean something Even if it's a very small thing to someone in her work of fiction the Correspondent Virginia Evans weaves together the story of civil van Antwerp through the letters that she saves and writes But these letters only give a spotty account of her days And we the reader are left to fill in the details and backstory and gaps in the chain between those correspondents The idea is an expansion of the practice that we do with the ancient letters of Paul There are a lot of men and Unfortunately some women out there in the world that idolize Paul and his fellow letter writers so much That they do some real damage to our religion Notice that once again. I say religion and not faith The way some of our religious institutions interpret scripture is the issue there is no issue of faith in God It is when we start to put more credence in religion when we make idols of men even ancient ones We start to get in trouble Taken at face value taken out of context taken as a weapon against women these letters are pretty straightforward Women stop talking Women keep silent Women are not permitted to teach women should dress modestly women should be proper Whatever the heck that means Eve was the bad one Women can only be redeemed by childbirth And if that is all you choose to read from these letters, then that will be the only picture you choose to see And it's pretty bleak for us ladies It's the reason that men and this town and all over the world in the year of our Lord 2026 have said things like I just don't think I could listen to a woman preach Every time scholars point out counter arguments for these ideas Men keep coming up with excuses not to listen Men keep coming up with excuses not to listen and we've heard them all Even recently when a southern Baptist pastor was questioned by one of his female members That was not happy with all of the decision with at all with the decision of their convention He admitted out loud that there are parts of Paul's letters that they do not adhere to But this part they choose to make a current policy in the church He admitted out loud that they pick and choose what suggestions of Pauline letters from 2,000 years ago That they want to stick with This pastor is someone who knows me well It does not matter to him that he's doing the dangerous practice of proof-texting or making the scripture say what you need it to All that matters is that one part of the letters tells women to keep silent Do the letters from Paul and his minions have value sure? There's some good ideas in them But you have to remember a couple things first. We only have his answers We have no idea what the letters coming from these churches and people said to him And people said to him We don't know exactly what issues they were having and what they asked of him There are many links in the correspondence chain missing Second, I have a feeling if you ask Paul he would tell you that when he wrote these letters He had no intention of them becoming canonized. He had no intention of them being idolized And if he knew what they would become I have a feeling there would be a big difference in what he chose to write These letters are written for a specific time and place not for all mankind everywhere and every time until the end of all creation And third I do think he would point out there are many many instances of him using women As preachers and deacons and spreaders of the word Because the truth is I have suffered under some terrible women preachers I have suffered under some really really terrible male preachers Being bad at this calling has nothing to do with you being male or female It has to do with your humbling yourself before god and being his vessel And some people are not good at either one of those things And paul knew and worked with some wonderful women in his ministry as well as the ones he suffered under Phoebe priscilla lydia and julia were praised by paul All And there's a whole other sermon I can preach about junia In roman 16 7 whose name was changed to the masculine masculine junius for centuries To hide that a woman was a valued religious leader So I choose to use these letters as a supplement only for the real work of ministry The real work of ministry is found in the red letters of jesus Jesus It is jesus's actions and priorities and works that we should idolize Because as he reminds us we should put no other gods or idols before him We should look to the gospel lessons first There are many many women throughout jesus's life that are important and at the forefront of his ministry Mary Mary the mother of jesus mary and martha and mary magdalene just to name a few And men today try to excuse away the fact that mary magdalene was the first bringer of the good news Apparently some men think that telling the disciples about the risen lord is not the same thing as preaching Can you hear my eyes rolling? I'm sure they will come up with some wild counterpoint to the matthew text that we read today Verses 55 and 56 say this There were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed jesus from galilee ministering to him Among whom were mary magdalene and mary the mother of james and joseph and the mother of the sons of zebedee At the end of his life When he needed it the most Jesus chose to have the women Whom he loved Ministering to him And if it was good enough for jesus It should be good enough for everyone else And just to help you out when men and unfortunately some women try and argue about that language Here's a tidbit for you the word that matthew uses for ministering is Diaconio a feminine plural verb And in some cases it does simply mean serving and helping but in others it means exactly what you think and hope it does Just like when it's used in first timothy 3 one chapter away from the weaponized words of today's scripture Diaconio can mean to fulfill the office and perform the duties of a deacon The women in his life were ministering to jesus right up into the end not the men But the women Because jesus modeled it and because paul also said That there is neither male nor female in the body of christ. We are all one I want to make this perfectly clear No matter who you are No matter if you are male or female gay or straight white or black or any other beautiful color Young or old able-bodied or confined to a body that does not work as you would hope Whether you're american or african or european or from any other country that man has made up lines for You are a child of god You are made in his image You are beautifully and wonderfully made You have a call on your life from god and not from man You are loved by god and by this pastor this female Flawed and struggling human being and if you don't feel that love and acceptance anywhere else in this world No, you will find it here Y'all know I love a good letter I've used many in my sermons and I think they're very valuable to our faith and our history I came across a historian recently danielle allen a woman of color Who quoted a letter that abigail adams wrote to her husband and future president john on march 31st 1776 Abigail is now my favorite first lady She's very blunt in her admonishment For the male-centric document that john and his buddies were crafting 250 years ago Here is some of what abigail had to say I long to hear that you have declared an independency And by the way In the new code of laws, which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would remember the ladies And be more generous and favorable to them Than your ancestors Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands Remember all men would be tyrants if they could In particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies We are determined to form a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute But such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of master For the more tender and daring one a friend Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vessels of your sex Regard us then as beings placed by providence under your protection And an imitation of the supreme being Make use of that power only for our happiness Well said abigail Where's the well declared mary magdalene well preached phoebe and all the other scriptural deaconesses Is May we listen to the spirit that comes in truth and life Through all who are truly called by god to preach and write music and liturgies And who are called to teach and lead and minister Whether they are men or women god has called and will continue to call people of all kinds to preach The question is Will you choose to listen Or will you choose to let men tell you to ignore the things you don't want to do Simply because of the vessel it comes through I'm in It is my hope That all of the men that are listening And all of the men that we surround ourselves with and are in community with Would like to not be tyrants But friends because in life and death In life beyond death God is with us We are not alone Thanks be to god amen