Grits and the Gospel - March 8, 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 this third Sunday of Lent and Last week apparently I said it was Advent and not lent and I had people checking on me I am just fine. I was very tired last week. I drove six hours and then recorded my sermon so That is why I said Lent. I mean Advent instead of Lent. So we are in Lent. We are moving toward Easter And it is a beautiful season to be in the church So now that we are fully established and where we are and what we're doing I Come to you today for worship and it is my hope that you Will be as blessed by this sermon as I have been by it this week The Lord be with you and also with you today's psalm comes from the 95th psalm It is a Hope-filled psalm that reminds us of the Lord's power and might Here now the word of the Lord. Oh Come Let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise For the Lord is great is a great God and a great King above all gods little G and His hand or the depths of the earth the heights of the mountains are his also The sea is his for he made it and the dry land which his hands have formed Oh come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker For he is our God We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Oh that today you would listen to his voice Do not harden your hearts as mayor as at Meribah as on the day at Massa in the wilderness When your ancestors tested me and put me to the proof though, they have seen my work For 40 years, I loathe that generation and said they are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not regard my ways Therefore in my anger I swore They shall not enter my rest The Word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God It is important for us to remember why we are here why we are worshiping Why we are in lent and what we are moving toward So let us say together those words of the Apostles Creed Friends, what do we believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ is only sent 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 come to you today just humbled by your power and your grace And you're ruling over all of us All of us are your subjects there is no man that is above any of us Help us to remember that remember and be humbled by your spirit That we may be good neighbors to one another Hear us now as we pray those words that your son 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 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 sermon started out a lot differently than what you will hear today It started out angry It started out a little vindictive As it rolled around in my head in my heart. I wanted to say things that were truthful, but not kind at all But then I would be the same as so many other pastors that use the pulpit for their personal gain And when you hear the sermon that I will preach today You will know why God changed what I wanted to say To what he wanted me to say and the sermon may be different than most than I preach But I think it is exactly what we all need right now Especially me Today's gospel lesson is the gospel according to John Chapter 4 verses 5 through 24 the full lectionary text is actually through verse 42 But that is very long and involved and so I Chose to preach on the first part of the passage through verse 24. I Encourage you to read the passage in full Here now the word of the Lord So he came to a Samaritan city called Sikkar Near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph Jacob's well was there and Jesus Tired out by his journey was sitting by the well. It was about noon a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her give me a drink His disciples had gone to get to the city to buy food The Samaritan woman said to him How is it that you a Jew ask a drink of me a woman of Samaria? Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans And Jesus answered her If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you. Give me a drink You would have asked him and he would have given you living water And the woman said to him, sir You have no bucket and the well is deep Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us the well and with his sons and his flock? Drank from it Jesus said to her Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again But those who drink the water that I will give them will be thirst will never be thirsty The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life The woman said said to him sir Give me this water. So I'll never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water And Jesus said to her Go call your husband and come back The woman answered him. I have no husband and Jesus said to her you were right in saying I have no husband for you have five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband What you have said is true and the woman said to him sir. I see that you're a prophet our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem and Jesus said to her woman Believe me The hour is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem You will worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father and spirit and truth For the father seeks such as these to worship him God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth The word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? dear Lord is I Receive these powerful words that I need to hear for my own spirit May it be so for others who hear it as well 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 did not want to write this sermon. I Did not want to preach this sermon But not too long ago, I forgot where I lived I forgot where I lived And that part of all this is on me I Forgot how deep in the Bible Belt of Southern Baptist theology that we live I Thought I was like with like-minded people in a safe space when I started telling a story a Story of irony and my weird sense of humor that was centered around how uncomfortable I make some people Well one person in particular Because I dare to love her son who is a friend and is openly gay Boy, was I wrong about being in a safe space and When twice I said Jesus never said that being gay is a sin This person decided to use this scripture to try and prove me wrong This scripture the one that I just read about the woman at the well That was a new one for me Nowhere does it say anything about same-sex marriage or being gay? But this is what was thrown in my face to counter my point that Jesus did not say anything in Scripture about homosexuality Neither did Paul for that matter But this person had been told to fear the other so much They had heard preachers and been in Sunday school classes and heard this mental gymnastics way of American evangelical faith That they were going to die on the hill of belief in their ideas I wish we could say that the other ring is limited to one issue But people are made to feel bad about other parts of themselves All the time and scripture is often used to do it. It is one reason why people are leaving the church Why would you want to be part of something that constantly made you feel bad about who you are? Whether it's being a woman or having physical disabilities or being on the autism spectrum or divorced or being an addict or in recovery or like in this instance being gay People use scripture to put shame and guilt on others so they don't have to deal with their own issues They are made to feel less than so they make others feel the same Hurt people Hurt people and if we find a way if we can look to find a way To break away from the bad things that are happening in our lives To break that cycle Maybe loved people Can love people so today? I want to do two things I want to look at the passage itself and what Jesus is actually telling the woman at the well and I want to talk about how the United Methodists work through and study scripture and By doing those two things I hope to give you some help in talking to people who have been shown how to do mental gymnastics To make scripture say what they needed to Instead of looking at scripture to see how Jesus tells us to live Because those two ways of looking at scripture are very very different Jesus was not condemning the Samaritan woman for having five husbands He was using it to show her who he was That is it There is no condemnation Remember last week the passage just before this one said that Jesus was coming not to condemn the world but to save it and That's exactly what he's doing. He was giving her the water of life The writer of John uses this encounter that Jesus had to make several points None of which are That homosexuality is a sin It still boggles the mind and Verses 9 and 10 after Jesus asked her for a drink of water We are shown how we should love everyone not just people with our own heritage or from our own country The Samaritan woman said to him How is it that you a Jew ask a drink of me a woman of Samaria? Jews did not share things in common with Samaritans and Jesus answered her If you knew the gift of God and who it is the saying to you give me a drink You would have asked him and he would have given you living water He was trying to save her not condemn her When she does not fully understand what kind of water he's talking about one that does not need a bucket and a well He uses his godly power to prove the her that he was more than just a man at a well He tells her something about herself that no stranger would have ever been able to figure out in the few minutes that they had Been at the well together Jesus shows her a small glimpse of his power when he says that she has had five husbands Well four and a half and that knowledge and insight into her past proves to the Samaritan woman That he is divine. I went back and read and reread These words and these verses many times looking and searching for the part of this passage where Jesus condemns her for having five husbands and I know it can be a little dyslexic time sometimes but that's mainly with numbers So I made certain and sure that I did not miss Where that part of her story was used to condemn her and It wasn't It was used by Jesus to show her just how well he knew her heart and her past and that What he was offering was real and this is what he said to her Woman believe me The hour is coming when you will worship the father Neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem you worship what you do not know we worship what we know For our salvation is from the Jews, but the hour is coming And is now here When the true worshipers will worship the father and spirit and truth For the father seeks such a such as these to worship him God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and Truth Nowhere in that answer to her were words of condemnation for her marriages relationships or her past and Nowhere in there were any words thoughts Proverbs stories or parables about homosexuality The only thing in the answers and the words of Jesus are hope Acceptance divine knowledge and love that is all So to get to the way that this passage is being used to condemn and hurt and other quote Took some real mental gymnastics It took some real hurt and misunderstanding and that is where we come to the second thing that I want to point out today The United Methodist Church is far from perfect It has tried to correct some wrongs and make new paths to being a loving and inclusive church to the example of Jesus But we have not always lived up to our old motto of open hearts and open doors But now we are trying and I believe in most of the Westland theology There will never be a church of Katie doctrine that fits every single thing that I believe But the United Methodist Church and the Westland way of thinking come the closest and I know I Know that Because I've studied it extensively The United Methodist Church does not have Self-ordination Unlike other denominations, you are required to be endorsed by your home church, but then You have to do graduate level study to become ordained and it takes years To do it There are background checks and theology writing that have to be done and defended Before you can become an elder or a deacon or a licensed pastor And that lack of study in other denominations shines brightly when we see scripture forced into Submission to say what a man would like it to say and not read for divine inspiration There are two other ideals in the United Methodist tradition that I think are important and necessary in today's world The first is the Westland quadrilateral The first is the Westland quadrilateral Is a way of thinking and looking at theology and faith with four ideals in mind The first is scripture But that goes along with tradition reason and Christian experience This holistic approach to faith means that we can see scripture and life in a dynamic way and It seems that the one that the American evangelicals are lacking in the most these days is reason It is completely unreasonable To think that today's passage was Jesus condemning homosexuality or sexuality of any kind including multiple marriages The last Westland ideal that is important to our ability to defend our church our beliefs and our friends is one that permeates every aspect of United Methodism We even talked about it in my disaster conference when we learned her to tarp a roof Do no harm The practice of manipulating scripture for any reason causes harm preaching without knowledge or study causes harm I Take what I do at this table and at the pulpit very very seriously and I see that there are people who do not and they cause harm I Am constantly keeping that in mind as I preach and as I minister and as I love my neighbor But it's not just about preachers. We should all strive to fulfill that Wesley Wesley an ideal There are actually three parts to this idea from Wesley he calls us to do not do no harm But he also calls us to do all the good you can and to stay in love with God And I don't think that everyone should be in I know Methodist, it's okay to believe different doctrines, but Lord help us Can we just try not to do any more harm than what is happening in the world right now? These reminders have been good for me to hear this week because the truth is that I froze when faced with hatred I Said none of this All I can say and my confused and shocked brain was Jesus never said that being gay was a sin And while that is true It wasn't nearly enough to convince the person that believes that it is Hopefully it planted a seed of doubt in their heart that God can use Hopefully that one idea will take hold. I did not want to write this sermon. I did not Want to preach this sermon and it is all your fault You Through your faith in Christ and determination have created a sense of love and caring and belonging here That is unlike most of the rest of this community And it is your fault That I was shocked and stunned When someone did not see Jesus the way we do And because it is all your fault I could not be more humbled and proud To be given the chance to be your pastor As it turns out This is my safe space to be As it turns out This is my safe space, too And it may take us a while heck it may take us forever But together We can be the vessels of God's love That others around here have never experienced before We can show them how to fill their buckets from the well of living water I'm in as you go throughout your week. I hope that you feel inspired That you can feel powerful in the knowledge that God Is in control that he is love And then ultimately No matter what the rest of us do Love wins because in life and death And life beyond death God is with us We are not alone Thanks be to God I'm in