Grits and the Gospel - March 1, 2026

Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of grits in the gospel My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths, and it is good to be back with you the second Sunday of Advent It is March 1st So it's also a communion Sunday and we are coming together around the table and I hope as always that you have a place to fellowship And come around a table with your community And It is good to be here during Lent and to have this good message It is good to be back with you and worship as well the Lord be with you and also with you Today's gospel today's Psalm is the hundred and twenty first Psalm Here now these encouraging words of the Lord I lift up my eyes to the hills from where will my help come my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep The Lord is your keeper the Lord is your shade at your right hand The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil He will keep your life The Lord will keep you're going out and you're coming in from this time on and forevermore Amen During Lent is especially a beautiful time to come together and say those words that remind us of the 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 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 in 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 together dear Lord as we come together today, let us Be brave let us find ways to be brave like Nicodemus That even if it is in silence Let our bravery shine through but our curiosity Encourage us to do the the hard things in this world 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 I 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 trespassed 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 scripture is one that is familiar. Let us all hear it with fresh ears today's gospel lesson is The gospel according to John chapter 3 verses 1 through 17 here now the word of the Lord Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi We know that you are a teacher who has come from God For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person Jesus answered him very truly I tell you no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above and Nicodemus said to him. How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb to be born? Jesus answered very I truly very truly. I tell you No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit Do not be astonished that I say to you you must be born from above The wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from Or where it goes So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit Nicodemus said to him. How can these things be? Jesus answered him. Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things Very truly. I'll tell you we speak of what we know and testify for to what we have seen Yet you do not receive our testimony If I had told you about earthly things and you did not believe How can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descends from heaven the son of man And just as Moses lifted up the serpent and the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up That whoever believes in him may have eternal life for God So loved the world That he gave his only son So that anyone and everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life Indeed God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world But in order that the world might be saved through him The Word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God Would you pray with me dear Lord? Thank you for the story of Nicodemus seen with fresh eyes That those familiar words of John 3 16 will not be something that we just recite but something that we understand deeply and live fully 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. Amen One of my favorite recent musicals is Hamilton. Not sure if you've heard of it It follows some of the brave men and women who helped found our country and win our freedom from Britain Which now seems like a bad idea Although they have their own issues these days in the show one of Hamilton's best friends is the tailor Hercules Mulligan. He is the spy on the inside Even though that name seems like one that Lin-Manuel Miranda made up in a fever dream He was a real person The work that he was doing was much more in-depth than a simple spy listening in while his British customers were being measured for new clothes Mulligan was part of a much larger group of spies Based in New York City from 1778 to 1783 called the Culper ring It's a fascinating story. It's one of my favorites one of the members agent three five five or Yeah, agent three five five was kept so secret That we still are not sure who she was These men and women risked their lives for the things they wanted in a new country and the ideals that they held dear For many years. We didn't even know they existed They did it all they worked not for glory or fame or credit To make a better life for themselves To stand up for what they believed in even though it was in silence and hoped this new country would be a place for freedom as I read this very familiar passage again this week I couldn't help but think about how brave Nicodemus had to be just to show up that night Under the cover of darkness He comes to Jesus with some pretty interesting questions His curiosity had gotten the best of him and he's willing to risk going against the rest of the church leaders to get them answered He has to come under the cover of darkness Because by showing up by wanting to learn more by being curious Nicodemus was risking his job and his life And what he says at the beginning is very chilling when you think about it Rabbi we know that you are a teacher who has come from God For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person We know who you are they knew the Pharisees the church leaders Recognized that Jesus was in some way a part of God The rest of them didn't care how or why they just saw Jesus as a threat to their power and control of the church But Nicodemus saw something different Silently he had been listening and thinking and wondering while his fellow leaders were working to find a way to kill their rival And finally his curiosity about who Jesus was and what he was trying to do got the best of him And he did the brave thing and went to find out more for himself and so he comes to Jesus and asks him directly What it means to be born again we can learn a lot from Nicodemus And it's not just about the questions he asked and the answers that Jesus gives Nicodemus reminds us to be curious and not judgmental like Ted Lasso told us to do Unlike the rest of his colleagues Nicodemus let's curiosity and not judgment Form his opinion of Jesus and this new way of faith He was talking about the other thing that I love about his curiosity was that he was not afraid to ask those questions If I had the person of Jesus that he said he knew was of God Sitting right in front of me. I'm not sure I would have the guts To question him or his authority, but friends us exactly what Jesus wanted him to do He wanted people to figure this new thing out to be in conversation and relationship with him Jesus did not turn him away or ridicule him or stop him from asking questions Jesus kept explaining his divinity that he possessed until Nicodemus could better understand it What ultimately got the idea through to Nicodemus or the words that we are all so familiar with For God so loved the world That he gave his only son So that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life indeed God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world But in order that the world might be safe through him And if you think about those verses in the context of the entire passage They become more powerful in a different way Looking Nicodemus in the eye under the cover of darkness with his life and reputation on the line Jesus tells him that he wants him to have eternal life And he wants that for him in a way that goes directly against what the Pharisees were doing not through condemnation but through Jesus's sacrifice and love and Salvation what a revelation that must have been for Nicodemus and In a second act of bravery he goes back to the people that would have killed him for that meeting and works secretly and subversively To help with the mission of Jesus He becomes the Hercules mulligan of the disciples We see this in two verses of the seventh chapter of John It's the only other time we see Nicodemus in Scripture Verses 50 and 51 are part of the debate and conversation about how to charge and arrest Jesus So they can put him to death You see the Pharisees have to get rid of this threat and so they start working to find a way to do it But in that story, we see Nicodemus try to subtly help Jesus in that process The verses tell us this Nicodemus who had gone to Jesus before and who was one of them asked Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they're doing. Does it? Now we don't know what them John was referring to he could have been referring to the Pharisees But what if the them that Nicodemus was a part of was really the disciples? What if Because of that meeting and the brave heart and curiosity that Nicodemus had he became one of the disciples Not one that was out front But one that was trying to change things from the inside One that risked his life to bring other ideas like due process Shocking I know To the group to begin to change how they saw Jesus To the group to begin to change how they saw Jesus And even though he was never meant to be successful. Maybe that is a lesson for us today, too One of the last seminars that I attended at Candler was one where Andrew Young spoke He spoke of the rooms that he was in as a US senator where he was the only Democrat He challenged us not to avoid rooms full of people who do not have the same goals that we do He encouraged us to boldly go into rooms where not a single other person thought like us or voted like us He told us that you cannot flip tables that you are not sitting at For Nicodemus that was subtle A push back against one part of what his fellow Pharisees were trying to do It was the same for the copper ring in the revolution They were so subtle and secret that we may never know the extent of their work And maybe just maybe in today's world where many people in power are feeling insecure and threatened by free-thinking people We need to think take a lesson from Nicodemus and just go quietly and sit at the table And when we are there We can start to suggest a different way to think and to live and to love To those who think that destruction is the way to power and maybe If we start to subtly show them a different way and push back against their ideas one at a time God will use us to show them that power and control Has never been and should never be The goal Love is always The goal One of the best ways we can do that is by continuing the work that we are doing here together Showing everyone love And a new way to be a church family And that could start at the table We can keep doing it the same way our methodist founders thought of communion The idea that true methodists have had from the beginning Charles Wesley Use this As his call to communion Come centers to the gospel feast Let every soul every soul Be Jesus's guest You need not be Not one be left behind for God hath been all Mankind let us now prepare our hearts to come to the table To live out the words that Jesus told Nicodemus that night to remember the sacrifice and love That it took for us to all Be offered grace And salvation Amen as we go throughout this week, let us remember To be brave To say the hard things But also sometimes To just sit quietly with our neighbor And not say anything Because in life In death in life beyond death god is with us. We are not Alone Thanks be to god amen