Grits and the Gospel - March 15, 2026

Hello friends welcome to this week's episode of grits in the gospel My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths. It is good to be here with you today on this fourth Sunday of lent we are slowly but surely marching forth toward Palm Sunday and Easter what a great Great beautiful morning. It is to be with you today, and I am hopeful that your lent season is as fruitful and cleansing as mine has been Let us come together now in a time of worship the Lord be with you and Also with you today's epistle lesson is the fifth chapter of Ephesians Verses 8 through 14 here now the word of the Lord For once you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are light walk as children of the light For the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true To find out what is pleasing to the Lord Take no part in the fruitful works of darkness rather expose them For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly But everything exposed by the light becomes visible for everything that becomes visible is light Therefore it is said it says sleep or awake rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you The word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God Let us come together now and say those words that are a reminder of the full story of Jesus as We continue to be focused on His death and resurrection during lent 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 thence 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. I'm in let us pray dear Lord. We come to you today blind blind to the needs of the world around us blind to our own shortcomings blind to The things in this world that need to be changed Help us see help us truly see Ourselves The beautiful creation that we are and help that vision of who we are Translate into how we see others Hear us now as we pray those words that your son our healer and our Redeemer 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 And give us this day our daily bread 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 lectionary scripture is another long one But I encourage you to read it in its entirety It is a beautiful scripture with lots of lessons in it we will be focusing on John 9 verses 1 through 11, but I Encourage you after you listen to this to go read verses 1 through 41 and the story and its entirety Hear now the word of the Lord As he walked along he saw a man blind from birth His disciples asked him rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind and Jesus answered neither This man nor his parents sinned he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day Night is coming when no one can work as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world When he said this he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread The mud on the man's eyes saying to him go and wash in the pool of Shalom which means sent then he went and washed and came back to see and Came back able to see The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask is this not the man? Who used to sit and beg and some were saying it is he others were saying no because it's someone like him He kept saying I am he But they kept asking him then how were your eyes opened and he answered the man called Jesus made mud spread it on my eyes and said to me go to Siloam and wash and then I went and washed and Received my sight The word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God Would you pray with me Do Lord make the scales fall from my eyes Take the mud and wipe it on my eyes and my heart and open them so they may see 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 I Get into my head a lot It's gotten worse with age. I would be so worried about the next class that I had to get to It happened a lot at Candler so I would be so worried about the next class I had to get to wondering if I was gonna live the real-life nightmare of Showing up to class without a mess on an assignment trying my best to remember everything I tried to read and understand for systematics That apparently sometimes I looked like I was on the warpath to kill someone in the halls of the school Someone even stopped me once and asked if I was okay It startled me because I'd not even noticed they were there I Cannot tell you the number of times I charged through the atrium at school worried about my own classes Or getting to my locker for a snack because you know, I had good snacks in my locker But I would walk right past some of our very favorite people and not even notice they were there It took an awakening of sorts to get me out of my own head to see what beautiful things Were happening right in front of me. I could do an entire Sermon series on this text. There's so many lessons to learn lessons about generational sin about Healing on the Sabbath and going against ancient traditions that are not really scriptural Lessons about the blind and how they really are the ones that see the best It's hard to narrow things down this week because this text is so packed with beautiful lessons to learn But the thing that came into focus most this week the thing that I think I needed to hear the most Was this idea that the people of the town? Were where the blind man lived were so blind to him That they could not see him once he could see It reminds me of Clark Kent and the thing I say in every single Superman movie How in the world did all of those people not recognize Superman when all he did was put on a pair of glasses There was nothing visibly changed about the blind man Jesus makes some mud and wipes it on his eyes, but then he goes and washes it off so nothing has changed about his appearance and yet The people who have watched him beg for years For years probably even decades in their town Do not recognize him How could it be possible that there is no outward change to this man and They still have to be convinced that this is the same person The convicting answer is that they didn't pay him any attention when he was blind Could they have been like me and just be so focused on what was going on in their own heads and their own lives that they just tuned out all the world around them sure and That's bad enough and for some people in that town. I'm sure that's all it was But I am also sure That there were others who were purposefully blind to the beggar who could not see I am sure that there were people in that town who looked away when they had the chance to help I'm sure that there were people who avoided that part of town where he was Across the street so they didn't have to walk past him But now that he was more normal Now that the other part of him was fixed It was easier for them to really see him We see it in verses 8 and 9. I can't help but shake my head when I read it The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask Is this not the man who used to sit and beg and some were saying it is he others were saying no Because it's someone like him. He kept saying I am He I am the he Goodness how frustrating that must have been for him But if you keep reading the passage, you will see that they are still not convinced They have to go to ask his parents for verification Remember friends. He looks no different than he did before They verify that it is indeed their son The man gets up and says he's not the man he used to be So frustrated that he says again in verse 27. I have told you already and you would not listen Why do you want to hear it again? Can you imagine The face he was making and he said it as he said it. Can you almost hear the eye roll? Which was probably his first of many Maybe the people of that town were afraid Of what the blind man really saw of them when he was begging Maybe they thought that if he couldn't see That he really couldn't see them But maybe he was the one that really saw his neighbors most clearly all of these years And maybe they were all afraid that now that the blind man could see That he would know who he had been observing all of these years I can't help but see the parallels of the world and the country we're living in today How many times will we have to see a name in a file to be convinced that they are not a good person? How many times will we have to ignore the people that are captured and detained because they speak another language or were born in another country? How many times will we have to turn a blind eye to the things we know are happening in this town and in this country before we stand up and say enough? What person that is standing right in front of us Thinks that they have to be healed of some affliction to be seen as a valuable human How many times have I myself walked right by someone who needed my help and been blind to them? This man's appearance was not changed at all when he was given the gift of sight So what changed about him that made him visible to those around him? It's a hard question to answer because it makes us look at our own selves What parts of who we are get ignored? How does that make us feel? Who are we ignoring because they make us uncomfortable? What I cannot shake this week is the call from Ephesians Everything exposed by the light becomes visible for everything that becomes visible is light Every single person is a child of god Every single one of us is light And for all of us to feel visible and to be visible. We have to be brought out into the light And that is true for the beautiful parts of us and for the darker and more difficult things Our failings and our triumphs our perceived shortcomings and our beauty They can all bring light They are all part of who we are the people around the blind man assumed that his blindness was something to be ashamed of But the truth is he was a beautiful child of god before he was healed as much as he was after The gospel tells us Jesus answered neither this man or his parents sinned He was born blind so that god's works might be revealed in him God uses us every part of us in many different ways He uses us to reveal his love to the world Sometimes it's hard for us to see past our own failures and hurts and missteps and wounds to see just how much people see god in us Sometimes we have our blinders on to the ways god uses us To show love and forgiveness and hope Sometimes we walk right past the things that god is trying to show us as well Sometimes we are blind to the beauty and the love and the moments of redemption that are right In front of our eyes If jesus put mud on your eyes And you washed it off and could truly see the world around you What would be the things that you missed? Are you so used to these south georgia sunsets that you no longer see how amazing they are Are you so ashamed of parts of yourself that you don't see just how beautiful you truly are? I hope that you're inspired this week to seek out the things that are living in darkness Whether it is your neighbors or your self-perceived flaws. They all deserve to be brought to the light They all deserve to be seen and loved because they are all of god some things may need his forgiveness Some things may need the forgiveness of others But that light that we all want can cleanse and heal all of our wounds That godly light can take away our blindness and make us witnesses of god's love and light At the end of the passage today the people of the town never see the blind man and his healing in anything As anything other than sin They get so angry That they banish him from the town But the blind man has a revelation of who jesus was Verses 36 through 38 tell us this jesus heard that they had driven him out And he when he found him He said Do you believe in the son of man? And he answered and who is he sir tell me so that I may believe in him and jesus said to him You have seen him And the one you're speaking and the one speaking with you is he And he said lord I believe And he worshiped him May we all see jesus for who he was and is The healer of the blind The savior of the world And may we all continue to believe And worship him amen As we go throughout our week as we get to the end of lent Let us look around us. Let us take off our blinders. Let us be healed And bring things into the light So that god's love may be reflected in us Because in life in death In life beyond death god is with us We are not alone Thanks be to god amen