Grits and the Gospel - June 14, 2026

Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of grits in the gospel. My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths I'm coming to you. I mean, I don't even have to confess this but this is the third take because we have a wild and Willy house here and for those of you who tune in just to hear Maggie snoring or See what kind of craziness is happening in the background. Well, welcome because We now have a kitten in the mix and she is running wild and I was hoping that she would eventually get to sleep but that's a pipe dream a pipe dream so She came up and stepped on the keyboard this last time and stopped the recording which I did not realize was happening so we're on take three and as a woman in ministry and a woman who has a podcast I will persevere And I will get this done For all the world to hear I saw our district superintendent Jeff Cook at a funeral this week. I Asked him if I could be fired for cussing in the pulpit He had been packing and moving so he had not seen the news about the Southern Baptist Convention He was not surprised that I wanted to say bad words He was not surprised that I wanted to call some small-minded men bad words He also said that votes like the one that happened this week to ban women and leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention where's exactly the reason that we needed the United Methodist Church a place of inclusion and openness to anyone with a true call to ministry Which is of course one of the reasons why I'm so glad that he is the boss He did not use a single cuss word to say exactly the right thing good men Stand up for others good men promote and encourage And we have a lot of good men in the United Methodist Church We have good men in our leadership and in our pews and I'm thankful for those good men who counteract the others who are threatened by women and I'm thankful for the good men across many denominations who are standing in pulpits today and Preaching about women and ministry and how we are needed and wanted Hopefully those good men will shout louder than the others who seek to promote themselves and silence others So let me be clear about where I stand and where the United Methodist Church stands and where the church that I serve stands Each and every one of us is a child of God Each and every one of us is made in God's image No matter what form our bodies take or who we love or where we live or what job we do We all have a calling to mission and ministry and may be a call to drive a tractor It may be a call to medicine or the law or education And may be a call to be a mayor or a housewife. It may be a call to care for animals It may even be a call to stand in a pulpit No matter what your calling is no matter what your gender is no matter what color you are What language you speak or who you love? that calling is sacred and you are loved by God and by all of us and That is why faith groups like the United Methodist Church are so important Because other places are filled with people who think otherwise Today's epistle lesson is from the letter from Paul to the Ephesians The second chapter verses 1 through 9 here now the word of the Lord You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world Following the ruler of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient All of us once live among them in the passions of our flesh Doing the will of flesh and senses and we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else, but God Who is rich in mercy out of the great love with which he loved us? Even when we were dead through our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace You have been saved and Raised up with him and seated with seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Jesus in Christ Jesus for by grace You have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing It is the gift of God Not the result of works so that no one may boast The word of God for us the people of God, thanks be to God Let us come together now and remind ourselves of the things that we hold dear in our faith in God 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 dear Lord. We are so thankful for the grace that you so freely give That we may not just believe But have faith in you and you alone Hear us now as we pray those words that your son our 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 Last week we looked at the journal entries that were pivotal a pivotal moment for John Wesley as he had his Aldersgate experience and a moment of clarity in his faith This week we're looking at the first sermon that he preached after that experience Wesley was not afraid to speak the truth in his sermons in His effort to lean into the idea that his ministry was vile and against the norms of the time This sermon is no different It was controversial at the time and can still raise an eyebrow or two Today's gospel lesson is the text that Wesley refers to in his sermon Luke 4 31 through 37 Hear now the word of the Lord He went down to Capernaum a city in Galilee and was teaching them on the Sabbath They were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority in the synagogue There was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice Leave us alone What have you to do with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God But Jesus rebuked him saying be quiet and come out of him And the demon throwing the man down before them came out of him without doing him any harm They were all astounded and kept saying to one another What kind of word is this that with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out and The news about him began to reach every place in the region The Word of God for us the people of God. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? Dear Lord bless our time together that we may Have a stronger faith With the message and the words that I have been given Let it strengthen my faith and everyone that hears it Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord Our strength and our Redeemer. I'm in Tyler Childers is one of my favorite songwriters and singers. He has a great song called biting list The lyrics say this to put it plain. I just don't like you. Not a thing about the way you is And if there ever come a time I got rabies You're high on my biting list Everyone has that kind of list you may not call it your biting list and you may not Be in much danger of getting rabies, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you know the list of people you want to suffer Even if it's just a little bit It could be people, you know, or it could be people you've never met. It could be famous people or Politicians or an old boyfriend or a co-worker Not that my list contains any of those people There are just some people in this world who were so evil so hateful That they're just not redeemable or are they John Wesley makes some pretty bold points in his sermon salvation by faith When he and his brother say all are welcome and all are children of God they mean it all means all even the worst of us even the devil and Looking at the John scripture that we read today about the demon coming out of the man The demon says this before he is removed. I know who you are the Holy One of God I know who you are The only one in the passage who truly sees who they're standing in front of is the demon Wesley has this to say the devil believes Not only that there's a wise and powerful God Gracious to reward and just to punish but also that Jesus is the son of God the Christ the Savior of the world Thus far goeth the faith of a devil. That's a pretty bold statement, especially for the time He was using the most extreme example the most shocking being that he could think of to make a point Kind of like the biting list Sure Childers doesn't actually want to get rabies One of the verses says this seizure fraught spinal rot I Want to be with the ones I love but in the light of the moon with everybody sleeping. I'd draw me a little blood That's wild and terrible, but it makes the point and If he did have rabies, I'm sure that the things he is describing would come true In other words, he's not wrong, but the point is pretty extreme and Wesley isn't wrong either Even the devil believes But in Wesley's eyes Where things go sideways for salvation is not what we believe what the devil himself? believes But where we put our faith Salvation is by faith and Wesley then goes on to remind people where we should and should not put our faith Faith and belief are two separate things for Wesley. We can believe in God and put our faith in ourselves And that's where he sees the difference in the devil and someone who has salvation Wesley says this No one can trust the merits of Christ until he has renounced his own He that goeth about to establish his own Righteousness cannot receive the righteousness of God The righteousness which is one of faith Cannot be given him when while he trusteth and that which is of the law When we trust in our own selves and not in God We have no faith and if we have no faith we cannot be saved That's exactly what Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians For by grace you have been saved through faith and This is not your own doing It is the gift of God Not the result of works so that no one may boast Well now Wesley's just gone to Medlin. What do you mean that we can't work our way into heaven? But aren't we supposed to go and do and love our neighbor and be in mission and In this sermon Wesley glances over that with one little sentence But I think it's very important to remind ourselves of what he's saying. Wesley was not preaching against holiness and good works Wesley believed those were not part of our salvation, but a product of it If we sincerely have faith and not just believe Then we will want To do all of the things that Jesus did and modeled for us to do But he was very clear that our salvation is not tied to our works just the inspiration for them Wesley knew how to get people's attention He spoke his inspired truth and was not afraid to ruffle some feathers when he did it We need more people to do that these days We need more people to do that these days We need more people to have more than the belief of the devil We need more people to renounce their own agendas and self-righteousness and put their faith in Christ We need more people to stand up and say the hard things the unpopular things the controversial things like Wesley did We also need more people to be inspired by their faith in God when they go out into the world and do good things Their salvation doesn't depend on it But maybe Just maybe God can use their salvation and faith to inspire others to move from belief to faith This sermon was a pearl-clutcher for sure Wesley was passionate about his faith once he found it at Aldersgate Once he came into the assurance of his faith we start to see the solidification of our Methodist beliefs We even start to see the beginnings of Wesley's ideas of the means of grace Provenient justifying and sanctifying that idea that we are always given grace, but can live into it in deeper ways as we grow in faith and the quadrilateral of scripture tradition reason and experience are there too We see the beginning of these ideas born of his faith boldly spoken through his salvation He ends his sermon with these words It is a sure confidence which a man hath in God that through the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven and he reconciled to the favor of God and In consequence hereof a closing with him and a cleaving to him as our wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption or in one word our salvation Just like Wesley was still working out his faith moving towards sanctification. I am working on myself, too Is it fun to have a bite and list? sure But do we need it? No First of all, I do not wish to have rabies second if We don't just believe but have faith and salvation Then we have to hope that others will move to that too Even the ones on our bite and list even the devil himself We have to hope that those who are in hell even the ones we want to be there Will realize that the gates of hell are open That salvation and faith really are for all All does not just mean the ones at the margins the ones that the mean people say are not worthy The ones that are marginalized and hurt Salvation is for the ones that are doing the hurting as well All they have to put us at do is put aside their own agendas and Truly see the Jesus they believe in but have no faith in and if I have faith I Should want my list to be wiped clean. I Mean I'm still working on it there's still a few that I believe should be on there and Maybe in time I will strengthen my faith enough to put my own self-righteousness aside and trust that God will handle them But right now there's still a few I don't want to let go of 73 percent of the men of the Southern Baptist Convention are at the top of the list at the moment people who dump kittens at the cramp campground are there and Maybe I have worked through it enough that I don't want to give them rabies Maybe I just want them to step on a Lego every day until they find their faith But then I'm reminded That it is not at all about what I want but only about the loving and powerful God That I have faith in Amen as we go throughout our week and people are hurtful and hateful and Horrible to others around them Let us not want bad things to happen to them, but let us want Jesus and salvation and faith To happen to them Because in life and death in life beyond death God is with us we are not alone Thanks be to God. 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