Episode Transcript
Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of Gritz and the Gospel. My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths and I am so thankful to be here with you today. We are moving rapidly toward Pentecost. This is hard to believe but it is almost that time of year and I'm so excited to be here with you this week to share this message. I hope you are all thriving and having a wonderful week and look forward to worship with you today. This fourth Sunday of Easter, let us come together now on a time of worship. The Lord be with you and also with you. Today's Psalm is the 23rd Psalm is one of the few things versus section of Scripture that I think sound better in the King James version. It is a familiar scripture. A lot of us had to memorize this scripture as a child and we did it in the King James version. It gives me comfort to hear it in those words and in that way. And I hope that if you memorize it as well as we speak it today that you will recite it with me and bring back memories and remember all the beautiful things that God promises us in this very familiar text. So let us come together now and hear the words of the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He make it to lie down and green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreeth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name sake. Ye though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou prepare us to table before me and the presence of my enemies. Thou anoint us my head with oil, my cup, runeth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Here ends the first reading. Let us say now together again those familiar words of the Apostles Creed. But let us really hear with fresh ears those words as we recite them. 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 seated 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. Amen. Let us pray together. Dear Lord, as we come together today, it help us to listen for that familiar voice of God. That thing in our heart and in our head that whispers to us that shouts at us when we need it, that calls and beckons to us. Help us prepare the way of the Lord by listening for your voice. Here now as we pray together the words that your Son told us to pray in his own voice. Our Father who art in heaven, how would 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. Today's gospel lesson is from the 10th chapter of John verses 22 through 30. Here now the word of the Lord. At the time of the festival of the dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? Are you the Messiah? Tell us plainly. And Jesus answered, I have told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testified to me, but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father in regard to what he has given me is greater than all else. And no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. The Father and I are one. The word of God, for us the people of God. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? Do Lord as we come together today to hear these words that you inspired me with. Let them be an inspiration to all who hear them. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in my sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. I love all kinds of sports. I think that's pretty well established. But I am just as passionate about the arts. Events like the Met Gala, the Tony Awards and the Kennedy Center Honors have made almost as excited as I get about Saturday's Down South in the Fall. I'm just as much inspired by the great artistic performances of the stage as I am the athletic feats that happen on the football field. In 2023, the Kennedy Center honored one of the greatest soprano voices of our time. Renee Fleming. The name might not be familiar but her voice should be. She is sung in operas and on Broadway. She has given voice to characters in movies when the actors couldn't sing and lent her voice to sound tracks. She is sung the national anthem and has been on every major stage around the world. She is sung with everyone from Poverati to Paul Simon from Sting to John Prime. Her voice is a national treasure. She's also done a lot of work with the connection between the voice and brain health with the World Health Organization. They used a quote from her book in the presentation that they did about her at the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors. My vocal chords, she says, delicate, mysterious, slightly unpredictable, have taken me to unimaginable places. The tradition of music grounds us. It connects us to one another through a sort of universal appreciation that transcends taste. It is not just the voice. It's what you do with the voice. I always imagine the voice as a tapestry that as one thread goes up, different threads are woven in. To me, the singer's art is the art of expression expressing the music, expressing the text. Projecting my voice into a large space and then using it to make the space between me and the audience grow smaller. My voice becomes a wide net that I spread out across all of us to draw us closer. The sound of her voice is an instrument for connection and music is her language. It makes me wonder what Jesus' speaking voice sounded like. Was it deep and gruff or did it have musical qualities? What did his laugh sound like? Could he sing? Whatever it sounded like I'm sure it was distinct. I'm sure it was familiar to those who were close to him. And that's the point that he's making in the text today. The Jews are dying for an outright imperative and declarative sentence. I am the Messiah. But Jesus did not deal in declarative sentences. His voice, the way he spoke, the things he spoke of were very distinct. His voice was about more than timber and pitch. It was about substance and parable, relatable stories, and the actions of healing and teaching were just as much a part of his distinctive voice as the way his laughter sounded. I have told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name testified to me, but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. Jesus is reminding them in verse 25 that they should already know that he is the Messiah. He has told them with his voice and show them with his actions that should be enough. Have you ever missed a loved one by saying, if I could just hear their voice one more time? Or if you haven't seen someone in a while and you say, I know that voice anywhere. Do you have old letters that you go back, get back out to read over and over because you can almost hear the person reading it in your heart? Does their distinctive handwriting bring back memories and draw you closer to them? I bet that the believers and the disciples look back on this moment and said some of these same things. I wish I could hear his voice one more time. I like to think of the voice of Jesus in a way that reflects what Fleming said in her book. To me, the singer's art or in this case the Messiah's art is the art of expression, expressing the music, expressing the text, projecting the voice into a large space and then using it to make the space between me and the audience grow smaller. A voice becomes a wide net that has spread out across all of us to draw us closer. Jesus used his voice to call his sheep so they would know him. And he used expressions and texts and projection to make people feel like they were so important to him. He made them feel like he was talking only to them. He used mountain tops and seashores to draw people closer. He used parables and lessons and intimate dinners with friends to teach lessons of hope and love. His voice carried across great expanses and the living rooms. Believers, he tells them, his sheep know the sound of his voice. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. Jesus says he knows each and every one of us. And to those who are his sheep, we know his voice well enough to follow it wherever it leads. It draws us close enough not to get snatched out of Jesus's hand, which by the way is one of my favorite phrases Jesus Jesus uses because I can't help but hear it in the voice of a Southern mother. You stay right here with me so no one will snatch you away from me. Do you recognize the voice of Jesus when you hear it? Does the voice of God beckon to you and direct you like a shepherd with his sheep? Where is it leading you? Jesus knows his sheep. If you answer, he will hear. He will recognize your voice even in the faintest of times. When you feel like your voice is being drowned out by sorrow or feels insignificant, Jesus always hears it. No one can snatch you away far enough where he won't hear your joys and your petitions. Your voice can spread across the heavens and draw you closer to God. I've saved on my phone several voice mails that I have collected over the years. With technology now we can hear the voice of those we miss. I have several from my grandfather's best friend, Nelson Butler, who after my grandparents dad stepped into that role for me. He used to call every year and sing happy birthday. I never answered when he called him a birthday and now I have a collection of messages of him saying how much he loved me. My friend, Lashwoodcock is a trained pianist and there's a very sacred list that I am on. If you're on that list every year on your birthday you get a piano performance like no other. I don't answer those calls either. Her voice is heard through her music but the most precious voice I have. The one that is so distinct, the one that I followed for most of my life, I have a voicemail from Gogi asking me to get a grocery store for. Katie, she says, I thought something I really need at the store. If you don't get it that's fine. It's what I use to wash my good clothes with and it's in the soap department. Let me get the jar just a minute. Then she puts down the phone and goes to the lingerie to get the brand name of the soap she wants me to get. There's a one minute silence on the voicemail. But even in the silence, her voice is there. I know exactly where she was in the house and where she kept all of the detergent. Katie, I'm back. She goes on to talk about which detergent it is and then how our CPA needed some paperwork that I was going to career for her. The soap department at the Kruger store has never been so holy. Each and every word she said to me that day is so very special. Even the silence. But it's that one sentence. Katie, I'm back. It makes me smile most these days. Her voice has never left me just like for the disciples, for the people who heard him speak and for us today to the writings of his voice. Jesus has never left us when we hear scriptures, when we see things happening in the world. When others speak of Jesus, we can tell just by their voice if they are really one of his sheep. His voice of justice and kindness and love were shown and heard in his time on earth. Those same ideals can be seen and all who truly proclaim belief in God, who have not been snatched away by greed or power, we know his voice. He knows us and protects us. The voice of God, the true voice of God is everywhere. Even sometimes when it seems silent, we can still find ways to picture how he is moving in the world. It draws us closer in with every word that it utters. Can you hear his voice? He is sharing his voice with us. If we just listen, I'm in. As we get throughout our week, let us listen and look for signs of and the voice of God through all that we do throughout our community to find ways to show justice and kindness and love. Because in life and death and life beyond death, God is with us. We are never, ever alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.
