Grits and the Gospel - October 25, 2026

Hello friends, welcome to this week's episode Grits in the gospel. My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths. It is good to be with you in this beautiful fall weekend things are finally cooling off and The weather is changing and it is a beautiful time of year and I hope that wherever you are is just as beautiful It is the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost We are moving rapidly toward Advent And I hope that your spirit is prepared for that I'm not sure mine is yet But we will be on this journey together and I'm excited to have this community as a part of that Let us come together now in a time of worship the Lord be with you and Also with you today's Psalm is the very first Psalm It is the beginning of a beautiful book That really sums up what it is like to be righteous And it's a good way to start that journey through the Psalms Here now the word of the Lord Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers But their delight is in the law of the Lord and on this law they meditate day and night they're like trees planted by streams of water which yield their fruit and It's season and their leaves do not weather and all that they do they prosper The wicked are not so but are like chaff and the wind that the wind drops away Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish Thus ends the first reading Let us come together now and be reminded of those things of our faith That help us to love God and the reasons why we love our neighbor 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 Would you pray with me your Lord we come to you today just so humbled By the love that you give us That we then give our neighbors Help us not just to be in mission with them, but to give them dignity and care and Authority over their own lives help us to listen to them And love them well 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 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 that is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever Amen Today's gospel lesson is a continuation in the gospel of Matthew. We're in the 22nd chapter Verses 34 through 46 here now the word of the Lord When the Pharisee heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they gathered together and one of them an expert in the law Asked him a question to test him Teacher Which commandment in the law is the greatest? And he said to them you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind This is the greatest and the first commandment and the second is like is like it You shall love your neighbor as yourself On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets now while the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them this question What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he and they said to him the son of David He said to them how is it then that David by the Spirit of the Lord Then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord saying the Lord said to my lord sit at my right hand Until I put your enemies under your feet If David calls him Lord How can he be his son? None of them was able to give him an answer nor from that day. Did anyone dare ask him? any more questions The word of God for us the people of God Thanks be to God Would you pray with me? Till you convicted my spirit this week May someone else that hears this message that you gave to me Hear it and feel your spirit As strongly as I did Let the words in 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 loved Growing up with mr. Rogers neighborhood Rogers is my middle name. So I just knew we were related I love the puppets and the sweaters and the kitchen table time But what I didn't realize when I was young is just how Groundbreaking the neighborhood that mr. Rogers created was At a time when children with disabilities were hidden away or made to feel shame, mr Rogers had a quadriplegic child and a wheelchair on his show He worked to ease the fears of children during the cold war He helped children with the anxiety that comes with divorce These topics were not things that were discussed on tv and especially not with children at the time His neighborhood Was a place of acceptance and love and openness He built the neighborhood that he wanted all of us to live in He built a neighborhood that jesus was trying To get us to build as well Love god and love neighbor It is the theme that we see throughout the ministry of jesus every parable every lesson Every gathering every iam statement throughout the entirety Of the gospels is about one of two things at its heart how to love god Or how to love your neighbor? And most of the time those are overlapping He was living out the ten commandments which are first about loving god then about loving neighbor Every time jesus went by himself to pray he was showing us how to love and be in relationship with god The good samaritan and feeding the 5 000 showed us how to love our neighbor The parable of the mustard seed shows us how the smallest act of love in our neighborhood Can create a beautiful tree But the question becomes What does that look for like for us today in this community? I was in atlanta this week for a continuing education course on innovation and ministry I don't know if this ever happened to you But Didn't you always hate it when your boss or your pastor went to a seminar and they came back all fired up about something You know, it will mean more work And as the leaders of the comrades were talking about turning their buildings into medical clinics and homeless shelters all I could think was Whoo, thank goodness. We don't own a building But there were a lot of good ideas At that conference The one that stood out to me the most Was the idea of doing mission for our neighbors versus doing mission alongside? Our neighbors Is it really loving someone if we tell them what they need to make their lives better When we assume we know what people want out of life and force them to make that happen Are we really loving our neighbors? I'm not saying we should scrap every mission project we have not at all people are hungry We should give them food Children need to learn to love to read We need to give them books But the question that kept popping up in my head this week was Have we asked people what they need? Before we gave them what we thought it was they wanted That's a radical shift from how just about every single church in this country does ministry But it's an easy. It's an interesting thing to consider And i'm not picking on any one project or group because it says I had not thought about any of it. I heard it in our mission classic handler, but it still did not For the first it still is not the first thing I think about when I look at missions my owns or the churches I don't know the answer to this But what if there are other churches in the area giving away hams for thanksgiving? or turkeys Will they have five other hams in their freezer? Do they have room for a ham in their freezer? The truth is I think people will be excited to be able to feed their families I think it's a wonderful idea and I think that people will not be hungry because we gave them food I wonder if we ask the residents of the housing authority What they need before we assume that we know If we would be buying something different than hams this november The mission coordinator coordinators may have done just that I just know that in my own mission work I did not think about it What it really comes down to is the second idea Of how we can love our neighbors better Are we seeing our neighbors as a mission field to be filled? Or as a person that has gifts that we can help live into that one really got me Every single person is made in god's image and every single person has gifts and graces Even though the world may see them as the least of these god sees them Sees them and sees us all as god's children We are called to love and care for people But we often forget the step of getting to know them before we assume What would make their lives better? We have to build relationships with the people we're trying to help Because that is what loving your neighbor looks like Jesus didn't just heal his neighbors. He sat down and ate with the outcasts of society He talked to the people that no one else wanted to interact with he got to know them He loved them where they were friends, please Please do not see this as a reprimand or a calling out or a scolding. It is not I am not taking away Anything from any mission that we have done already or are doing I am not invalidating the work that you have done at other churches or already do in this community What I hope is that you will take something from what god was showing me I was convicted. I was called out I need to have a shift in the way I see and love my neighbors If we're going to do ministry and public housing Maybe we should have an advisory board of people who live in public housing That will help us Not just love a mission about our neighbors, but to really love our neighbors As I sat in class this week, I was going over in my head all of the things I should be doing I should be reading to a class at the elementary school I should be working in the prison with the women who are incarcerated But even then I had to stop myself Maybe I need to ask the school what they need And how I can be of help I am sure that everyone wants to read to the littles. Maybe the high school is where I should offer my time How will I know until I ask? What I'm sure of is they don't want me helping in math class But how can my gifts and graces be used to help the students discover? theirs Maybe the sheriff or the warden have other ideas of things I can do for female inmates Maybe I should ask them Not only does asking help fill the actual need of the community And not what we perceive the need to be it helps build community and helps us better Love our neighbors It gives dignity and voice and authority to many people who are never given it by the world It builds relationship and grows inclusivity and learning from each other It does not require any more work than what we are already doing. It just requires a shift in how we start it It requires us to simply listen before we act it requires being brave enough to Love god by putting our neighbors and not ourselves at the center of every mission Project we do Mr. Rogers was Groundbreaking in the shift in thinking that he caused with his show The greatest cultural shift he gave the world was françois clemens who played officer clemens on the show He was the first african-american regular on any children's show on tv But mr. Rogers didn't stop there In a groundbreaking episode He dared to simply take off his shoes The simple act of taking off his shoes And putting his feet in a pool of water with officer clements That shift needed to happen back then what shift needs to happen now For me, it is making sure we give all people the authority and dignity They deserve as children of god and working together in mission It is finding ways to love god by loving our neighbors in new and different ways It's finding ways to show love by encouraging people to discover and use Their own gifts and graces it is letting the spirit of god Convict me and maybe some of you to see people not as projects but as neighbors It's taking our shoes off And putting them in a pool of water together As we share a ham sandwich I'm in It is my hope That you see the work that you do as god's work God's way of showing us how to love our neighbors And maybe After hearing the words today that he gave me You'll be inspired as well Because in life and death and life beyond death god is with us we are not alone Thanks be to god amen