Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song And Praise

Year C – 6th Sunday after Pentecost; Lectionary 16 – July 20, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Luke 10:38-42 Colossians 1:15-28 Grace and peace to you from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is our center and our focus. Amen. *** Martha… Martha… Martha… Poor Martha gets a bad rap from this story… but I understand her, and I bet you do too… especially if you’re an older sister or sibling. The text doesn’t explicitly say who is the older sister… but I think anyone who knows sisters knows… that she’s the older one. She has welcomed the traveling Jesus into her home and is bustling away at all the many tasks of hosting, while her sister sits at his feet, not lifting a finger… just listening… ugh!! Oh Martha… You know the stories that make us cringe… this is one of them for me… which tells me there is something in here that I need to pay attention to. Before we get into it, though, there are some interesting things I’d like to point out… The first is that we tend to harmonize our four gospels… and what I mean… is that in our rem

Today, we had a special musical performance of Confidence with a solo by Christopher Lewis at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

If I were a betting person....I would wager a large amount of money that the sermons considered at the end of this past week, are not the sermons considered at the beginning of this past week.  Nine preachers out of ten, I’d wager, would have preached this week’s parable of the Good Samaritan as a morality tale. And, frankly, I think that’s just fine. It does, after all, reflect a profound example of how we are to treat each other, regarding a “neighbor” not merely as someone who is close to us or looks like us or believes like us, but rather anyone who is in need. Given the political and cultural tone of society, and human inclination to perceive anyone different as something of a threat, even at the beginning of the week, it would have been a good message to preach and to hear... But this is not the sermon I was working on earlier in the week...because I am called to preach the good news of Jesus Christ...and speak truth to the reality of the world in which we live… which frankly, the best, most generous de

Today, we had a special musical performance of Seek Ye First with Megan Nyquist and Addie Thompson, on handbells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Year C – 4th Sunday after Pentecost; Lectionary 14 – July 6, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Galatians 6:1-16 Grace and peace to you from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who includes us in the mission of bringing forth the kingdom of God. Amen. *** Hospitality is a big deal. My mother took hospitality very seriously and impressed the importance of it upon me from an early age. I can remember going over to other people’s homes and being instructed ahead of time to be polite, say please and thank you… and, no matter what, do not complain about what is served for dinner. You eat it… and you say thank you. If we wandered out of line, all it took was a look… you know… the look… I came to understand that both extending and receiving hospitality are how we honor each other. Even if we don’t typically use that language for it, it remains an unspoken truth in our culture. Hospitality is still a big deal today, but in ancient times… hospitality was a matter of life and death. There weren’t many places we would equ

Third Sunday after Pentecost June 29, 2025 Faith, Okemos I Kings 19:15-16, 19-21. Psalm 16, Galatians 5:1, 13-25[26], Luke 9:52-62   The apostle Paul wrote, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20   …it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…   [And these words from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death. So that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life…So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Romans 6:3-4, 11]     As I was preparing this week for a small group study of the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I thought a lot about

Today, we had a special musical performance of Holy Manna by the Summer Singers at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Year C – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost; Lectionary 12 – June 22, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Luke 8:26-39 Letter from Birmingham Jail, MLK Jr.   Grace and Peace to you from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the source of our liberation. Amen. *** This past Thursday was Juneteenth… it is the day we honor June 19, 1865, when the last remaining people who were enslaved in Texas were liberated by the US Army… three years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. A few of us came together to honor this day by reading and discussing Martin Luther King, Jr’s, Letter from Birmingham Jail, from April 16, 1963. Nearly 100 years after the liberation of those people who were enslaved… we were reminded in that letter… that people of color in this country… were still not free. They… were still bound. And 62 years after this convicting letter… 62 years after MLK wrote of his ‘hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice would soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding would be lifted from our fear-drenched commu

Year C – Trinity Sunday – June 15, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd John 16:12-15 Athanasian Creed   Grace and Peace to you from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is God and the Holy Spirit… the Three-in-One. Amen. Today is Holy Trinity Sunday… now I have several clergy friends who prefer to gloss over this one, but given how cloudy our understanding of the Trinity is, I thought we should dig in, yes? So today… Trinity Sunday… is a different sort of festival… in that what we are celebrating is actually… our church doctrine… it is the church’s explanation of God’s nature as three-in-one… one-in-three… or rather, we should say… Today we celebrate our almost understanding of God’s nature. I say almost, because… it isn’t perfect… no description we can imagine or create will truly capture who God is… and that’s also the point. Nothing we can say about God will fully describe God’s being because God is massive and ultimately beyond our full understanding. God is mystery… and wonder… and awe… And yet… This massive and mysterious

Today, we had a special musical performance from Calvin Kadrofske on Marimba, as he played the song Restless written by Rich O'Meara at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Year C – Pentecost – June 8, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd               Acts 2:1-21   Grace and peace to you in the name of our Advocate, God’s Holy Spirit, who walks alongside us every day. Amen. *** God doesn’t create in half measures… ya know? Think about our planet… and all the intricate details included on every level of life… from whole eco-systems down to tiny microbes. Think about… us…you and me… There is no one else quite like you. You are unique and beloved… God knit you together after God’s own image, gave you life with God’s own breath… and loves you fully… God doesn’t create in half-measures… and all that God creates is precious and loved, including you… And since the beginning of humanity, God has invited us to be in relationship with God… never forcing the relationship, but giving us that choice… because we are loved. A choice to respond to the presence of God in our lives… in our world… in each other… and within our very own bodies. What began as God’s breath across the face of the wa

Today we had a special musical performance from members of the Faith Bell Choir, Brenda Kopf,  Elaine Harrison, Ann Mayer, and Addie Thompson as they played How Firm A Foundation at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

John 17:20-26; Pride Sunday; 7 Easter; June 1, 2025 Additional texts: Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 Rich Weingartner   Grace to you and peace from God our parent, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.   I’m scared.  We live in a scary time. When I went up to the UP to visit my parents and family for Easter, I brought my passport with me.  No real reason, just some fear that I might be in a situation where I’ll have to try to prove that I’m a US citizen. I hear of friends traveling to foreign countries, some of them who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community.  I fear that they won’t be able to come back into our country. I’m afraid to leave the United States for concern that I’ll be stopped at the border and end up being detained and not let back into our country.  It is an unsettling time for LGBTQIA+ or Queer people these days.  We hear constant attacks on people as things are said or laws are introduced or passed that try to declare our Queer siblings as “other” or to make it sound lik

Year C – Fourth Sunday in Easter – May 25, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd                 John 14:23-29   Grace and peace to you in the name of our risen savior, Jesus Christ, who gives us his peace. Amen. *** If you haven’t already heard… we elected a new bishop this past week at our synod assembly. Bishop-elect Julie Schneider-Thomas comes from the outskirts of the Grand Rapids area, where she served two congregations that are in a formal paired relationship. In church lingo… we call that a 2-point, and she has been with them for nearly 30 years. As excited as the assembly was that the Holy Spirit was calling us into something new… there were those for whom Pr Julie’s election was a cause for grieving… a cause for troubled hearts. Among them, of course, are our outgoing bishop, Criag Satterlee, and those who serve on his staff, Pr Chrisy Bright and Pr Kjersten Sullivan… also Bp. Satterlee’s wife and daughter. The Holy Spirit is now calling all of them forward into something new, but to what… they don’t yet know.

Today we had a special musical performance from the Faith Bell Choir as they played Let us Talents and Tongues Employ at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of True Light by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with a solo  by Chris Lewis at Faith Lutheran Church of Okemos, Michigan.

Year C – Fourth Sunday in Easter – May 18, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd                 John 13:31-35; Acts 11:1-18   Grace and peace to you in the name of our risen savior, Jesus Christ, who commands us to love more widely than we can imagine. Amen. *** What an incredible day of celebration! So beautiful and fun! And yet… some of us are still reeling from that storm that crossed our state on Thursday night and into Friday. There’s been damage here in our community, but also extensively across the state. Recovery and repair efforts are underway… and in Christ’s love, we hold those most affected in the embrace and prayers of our community… helping where we can through our prayers… and our actions. We do this… because it’s who we are as disciples of Jesus… we love our neighbors as Christ loves us… and sometimes that love looks like cutting up fallen trees and cleaning up broken glass. Life is better for everyone when we let our love for others guide us… And that, too, is worth celebrating. So, this i

This is a special musical performance of All My Days by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with a duet by Ryan and Addie Thompson of Faith Lutheran Church of Okemos, Michigan.

Year C – Fourth Sunday in Easter – May 11, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd                 John 10:22-30; Acts 9:36-43   Grace and peace to you in the name of our risen savior, Jesus Christ, who consistently shows us how great God’s love is for those we have pushed aside. Amen. *** Earlier this week, at our Tuesday Bible Study, we took a deeper look at this passage we heard today from Acts. It’s always fun when a story we may have overlooked surprises us with details that seem to rise to the surface… in a new way. For us, this week… it was this beautiful story about this disciple… Tabitha. She is the only woman in scripture to be specifically named a disciple, even though some translations have converted the word ‘disciple’ into ‘woman.’ She was, in fact, a named disciple of Jesus. And she cared for those who were vulnerable and marginalized… she cared for them out of her own resources… the widows and the poor. She cared for them with love and offered them dignity in a very practical way… by weaving and

This is a special musical performance of River in Judea by the Faith Bells of Faith Lutheran Church of Okemos, Michigan.