Grits and the Gospel - July 20, 2025

Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of Grotesque in the Gospel. My name is Rev. Rang Katie Griffiths I'm so excited to be here. So a great story this week of a United Methodist woman We share her with a lot of other denominations But I find myself in that same position. I went to a Southern Baptist preschool I went to a Presbyterian school from kindergarten to 12th grade. I grew up in the disciple of Christ Church and Now I'm a Methodist and have a degree from a Methodist institution So I'm with Fanny on getting a wide ecumenical view of things. I think that is why a lot of her hymns resonate across the denominations Fanny Crosby was a beautiful blind woman who wrote a lot and I'm excited to bring you her story today on this sixth Sunday after Pentecost Let us come together now in a time of worship the Lord be with you and also with you Today's song is the hundredth song and while I am not usually a Advocate for the King James version of the Bible. There's some verses some chapters some stories That just sound better in the King James version because they're comforting that way Is what we memorized as children is what we grew up listening to It is what makes our heart happy. So if you were one of those people that Had to grow up memorizing verses or hearing these verses and words in the King James version I hope this warms your heart if you aren't one of those old people like I am I hope that hearing these words in a different form will make you ponder them in a new and different way Here now the words of Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise to the Lord all ye lands Serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence was singing Know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves We are his people and the sheep of his pasture Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name For the Lord is good His mercy is everlasting and his truth and doereth to all generations The word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God as We come together today let us remind ourselves of those old words of the Apostles Creed that still ring true today 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 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 together do Lord as we come together today to hear those words of Your son's healing of the blind man Let us remember that blindness is Not a sin blindness is not something we need to be healed from But our own heart's blindness Is what keeps us from being in full communion with you and from each other Healed that part of our heart that lets us see those around us Here us now as we pray those words that your son taught us to pray our Father who art in heaven Howl would be thy name by kingdom come by 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 Deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. I'm in I believe I left some of that out but my brain as it tends to do went blank and Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that saying things rightly is not always saying them in full So I pray that your heart was more Remembering then mind was today and it is a good reminder for me and for all of us That we need to Remind ourselves of those words more often So they don't leave our hearts in our brains Here now the words of the New Testament lesson. This is from Mark chapter 8 verses 22 through 26 this version is the new revised standard updated edition and It is from the first or old Disgospel that we know of Mark and his version of the healing of the blind man here now the gospel according to Mark That came to Bethesda Some people brought a blind man to him and begging and begged him to touch him He took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him He asked him Can you see anything? And the man looked up and said I can see people But they look like trees walking Then Jesus laid his hand on his eyes again and he looked intently and his eyesight was restored and he saw everything clearly And then he sent him away to his home saying do not even go into the village The word of God for us the people of God. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? To your Lord open the eyes of our heart today is we come together to hear this message that you have given Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts Be acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our Redeemer I'm in For a brief period of time I taught third and fifth grade at Vomble Academy and Macon Vomble is a Bibb County public fine arts magnet school Because we were a fine arts magnet we had several pianos and one day the tuners were there I happened to know them so I was hugging them and talking to them for a few minutes I went to the office and one of the ladies pulled me aside and she said you know, we can't tell how cute you are Katie You don't have to bat your eyes at him. He's blind I said He knows exactly how cute I am He's my uncle Milton Browne was my paternal great uncle He was the youngest brother of my grandmother, Felma and lived his whole life in Twigs County Milton John Milton Browne was born July 8th 1941 he was the second blind son to be born into the family His older brother Paul was completely blind where Milton could tell the difference between day and night light and dark Milton and Paul both attended the Georgia Academy for the blind and Macon Today the Academy prepares students for a wide variety of jobs But at the time the main skills they taught were chair caning and piano tuning Milton chose to learn to tune pianos He worked all over middle Georgia, but his shop was on the family land in Twigs County He built, tuned and refurbished and moved pianos To watch a blind man move a piano mostly by himself Was a sight to behold He never thought of his blindness as a disability He never let it stop him He led a full and beautiful life Blindness was never an excuse for missing out on the fun He used to put his nephews and nieces one of which was my dad On the handlebar of his bicycle and ride them around the farm Yep You heard that right Fanny Krosvy did not let her blindness slow her down either Born in 1920 in New York she lost her sight at six weeks old from an infection The Braille language was not let yet completed when she began school So she relied on other people to write and transcribe her work She also moved through several denominations But she did belong to the Methodist church at one point She wrote over eight thousand hymns But often would not take credit for them She donated any profits she had from her writing to charity Her musical and lyrical talent was immense She could listen to a piece of music or sometimes even a short piece of the tune and come up with lyrics The blessed assurance lyrics are said to be one of those hymns Bing Blonde does not mean you can't see Being blind does not mean you are not capable Bing Blonde often means you have superhuman abilities in other ways In biblical times they saw blindness and illness and a very different light Medicine Was largely misunderstood and was associated with sin And while sometimes our action can cause us to be hurt and sick most of these ailments were caused by Physical issues not spiritual ones Bing Blonde having physical deformities Being confined to a wheelchair having illnesses like cancer are no longer seen as issues to be hidden or looked down upon It's sometimes hard to read some of these healing scriptures of Jesus when we know people who live with the things he healed people of When we look at the Levitical codes we also see rules that were put in place to keep people healthy Thank goodness modern medicine has shown us a better way to see our bodies and the ways we can treat it Even John Wesley tried his hand at healing and his journals there are a lot of medical treatments that he used My favorite one is for baldness fellas take note Wesley thought you should take an onion Cut it in half and rub it on your head There's a reason we no longer ask our preachers for medical advice So if you suffer from the things that the ancient world saw as caused by sin or if you're losing your hair Please know that there's nothing wrong with you You're a beautiful child of God made in his image and perfect just like you are Even if you've lost a little hair Fanny crossby and my uncle Milton certainly proved that being blonde does not mean you can't do anything you put your mind to Today as we read these lessons and healings of Jesus there's still a lot we can take from it We can all be blonde We can all have things that we truly need to see around us There can be things that we miss in life that we need to have our eyes open to Blindness is not just about the physical inability to see the world This small story and mark is a beautiful one There are many stories in the gospels of Jesus healing the blonde, but this one is special The blonde man comes to Jesus begging him to be healed Instead of making a spectacle and healing in front of everyone he takes the man To a private place outside of the village He tries to heal the man with his saliva Healing waters can come in many forms But once wasn't enough I love the man's description of what he sees He can see people But they're walking around like trees It takes Jesus working at his eyes again to fully restore his sight There are many Lessons here. I can do a whole series just on these verses spiritual growth and understanding as a process God may have to show us more than once the things he is trying to get us to see It reminds me very much of the of John Wesley's idea of grace Pervenient grace is that which is given to us from the beginning We don't have to do anything to get it or to deserve it In these verses the blonde man was never without God His love was always there for him The second kind of grace is justifying grace That's like the first attempt at sight restoration that Jesus gives the man It is restorative and relational like through the touch of Jesus But there's still a lot of learning and growing to do It is that second attempt at healing his blindness that shows us Wesley's idea of sanctifying grace That continual need to grow and learn and be healed that brings us toward perfection I think what I love most about the story of healing is that Jesus did not give up on the man He was there with him helping him and guiding him through the process of seeing the world like Jesus wanted him to That is where the lesson can ring true for us today Just because we may be blind to some things God is still right there with us And as we work to learn and grow and become more knowledgeable and empathetic to the world around us Jesus is right there with us guiding and helping us Friends we are all blind in some ways There are things we need to see about ourselves Or the world around us that are not always easy or fun to open our eyes to But Jesus shows us time and again that we are called to love And he won't just throw us to the wolves to do it He will be right there with us loving us and guiding us through the changes that we need to make so that we can remove our blinders He shows us the people we need to see and the justice we need to seek He will never leave us to do it alone What things are you blind to in your own life What have you failed to see or even tried not to see That are right in front of you What is Jesus guiding you through in your life to bring you to a place of fully being able to see the blessings he wants to give you My uncle milk not only drove a bike around the farm, but he used to service all of the family and work vehicles And to do that he drove each of those cars and trucks up on the lift and his shop That had to be a wild sight The blind man driving a car Milton didn't need to be healed He could see and doom almost everything we can do just in a different way And not on the roads Milton even knew just how cute his great niece was just by the sound of her voice Fanny Krossy didn't need to be healed either she was a brilliant poet and lear sister that used her ability to really hear music To create some of the most beautiful hymns in our worship rep- repertoire It is the rest of us that can take a lesson from the two of them We need to see people beyond what our eyes can see and we need to listen to the beautiful sounds of the world to really be able to put his love for us into words We all need to let Jesus heal us of the barriers we pull it put up To being fully present with the people in our lives And to really see them for who they are and what needs they have Jesus healed the blind man But often it is those of us who see that need to be healed of our blindness It is my hope and prayer that we can all Let Jesus touch the eyes of our heart And heal us as we move toward perfection Amen As we get through our through our week let us look for the things in this life That calls us to be blind to those around us And let us be healed through the power of Jesus So we can really see Because in life and death and life beyond death goddess with us We are not alone Thanks be to God Amen