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

This is a special musical presentation of Heavenly Sunlight by the Faith Lutheran Singing Sinners Summer Choirat Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Second Sunday after Pentecost June 11, 2023 Faith, Okemos Hosea 5:15-6:6, Psalm 50:7-15, Romans 4:13-35. Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Grace to you and peace… It was Friday morning.  Lola lay in her bed at Independence Village in Grand Ledge crying out, “Help me! Help me! Help me!”  Lola, now in her mid-90’s, is dying. Author Anne Lamott has written, “Here are the two best prayers I know:  ‘Help me, help me, help me’ and ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’” When I read the scriptures to Lola like the 23rd Psalm and Psalm 46 and Matthew 11 in which Jesus says,  “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest…”  she both haltingly and forcefully said them with me, totally by memory.  I don’t know that I’ve ever heard those passages spoken more powerfully. Then seemingly out of the blue she began to speak the words of an old hymn, “I Need Thee Every Hour.” I need Thee every hour Most gracious Lord No tender voice like Thine Can peace afford.     I need Thee, O I need Thee Every hour I need Thee O

Listen to today's Sermon by Rev. John Burow.

This is a special musical presentation of Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus and sung by Bob Nelson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Mid-February, I was inspired to consider pet therapy as part of the Spiritual Care I provide to patients, families and colleagues as a hospital chaplain With the support of hospital management I moved forward to get our Labrador retriever, Daisy, tested and certified as a therapy dog, and began bringing her to work in April   /        /        /   Providing spiritual care to patients and families for about a year caused me to think that I had a handle on the idea of the Holy Spirit, Spirit is “pneuma” in Greek Which literally translates to “wind-breath” So when I hear “Holy Spirit” I think about God’s holy and sacred wind-breath Moving and flowing… blowing through our lives          /        /        / As a hospital chaplain I regularly encounter unpredictable and unique situations with illness, tragedy and death I believe that God’s holy and sacred wind-breath nudges, guides and inspires me to provide compassionate care to individuals and families I’ve become accustomed to the support and guidance I believe

  This past Thursday was Ascension Day.  The Ascension refers to the claim of the church that the risen Jesus has “gone up” to share power and honor and glory and majesty with God. It is a claim made in our creed that “he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” Now, if you want to, you can vex about this prescientific formulation. But you can also, as I do, take the claim as a majestic poetic affirmation that makes a claim for Jesus, that Jesus now is “high and lifted up” in majesty, that the one crucified and risen is now the one who shares God’s power and rules over all the earth.   The disciples witnessed this departure of Jesus. They have been summoned ss witnesses. They have been promised power. They have been instructed to wait. And they have been assured of God’s rule.  In the second part of the reading from Acts today, they then go to Jerusalem and gather in the upstairs room where they were staying. They are there with certain women, including Mary th

This is a special musical presentation of the Parting Blessing by Chris Lewis, Deb Borton, Ryan Thompson and Addie Thompson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

“Honesty and love”…foundational words that came to me during my junior year in college in 1963 and ’64.  Years marked by JFK’s assassination… by George Wallace declaring “segregation forever”… by the reawakening of the women’s movement (Betty Friedan)…by MLK’s arrest in Birmingham –“Parading without a permit”…  by the cruel tactics of Bull Connor… by the Supreme Court ruled that state mandated Bible reading in schools was unconstitutional….by an attack on American journalists in South Vietnam…by our entrance into the war in Viet Nam after North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked a US destroyer ship in the Gulf of Tonkin…  by MLK’s “I have a dream” speech and his letter from the Birmingham Jail, by the bombing at 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham killing four young children, by a mock election to protest systematic disenfranchisement of blacks in Mississippi, by the killing Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, …by Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison….by President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act.  A t

This is a special musical presentation of There Is a Redeemer by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of One Step, He Leads by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.      This bold, seemingly audacious promise of Jesus is given to his disciples and to the infant church in the first century and even now to us who would follow him in this 21st century.  “If in my name…”   If we are troubled in mind or heart, we need only ask Jesus for comfort and he will give it.  If we are overcome by shame or self-loathing, we need only ask Jesus for the assurance that we are beautiful in his sight and he will give it. If we have nightmares of being lost and alone as I often do, we need only to ask Jesus to walk with us and he will do it…  It is in his name, in his nature to save us from falsehoods, from dead ends, from paths that lead nowhere.  Our risen Lord is with us on this fifth Sunday of Easter, this first Sunday after we said “goodbye” to Pastor Ellen.  If only we ask in his name, he is right here, right now, holding our hands, gently but firmly, assuring us that all will be well.  I talked yesterday morning with the son of a go

This is a special musical presentation of Lo, How a Rose/The Rose by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with a solo by John Borton at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Whenever there is transition or change in our lives, we tend to experience an element of uncertainty and even fear. I know that as I leave you, I feel the uncertainty of a future that is not yet known. I have been experiencing this uncertainty for you as I deeply want you to be protected and cared for. So, as I am honest and acknowledge that sense of uncertainty and fear, it is comforting to me that our readings today focus on God as our shepherd, the Good Shepherd. It is reassuring because I know I can place my trust in the Good Shepherd, regardless of what happens and what the future brings. We just heard the words of Psalm 23, a psalm that we sang between the first and second reading.  It is a psalm we will also sing as the Hymn of the Day. This is probably one of the best known, best loved poems in scripture.  It is known by people around the world.  In fact, I am sure many of you know Psalm 23 by heart.  This psalm tells each one of you that God is like a shepherd, caring for you, protecting you and guid

This is a special musical presentation of Lord, Listen to Your Children, sung by Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of People Need The Lord sung by Zach Hereza at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

PASTOR ELLEN:  I did my Clinical Pastoral Education at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine.  And, I vividly remember one of my patients, a dear, elderly Episcopalian man who was dying. This man deeply touched my heart. I will never forget the day I read him today’s story from Luke’s gospel. After I finished reading, he said to me, “There’s always an Emmaus.” The next day, my friend died, but I shall always remember what he said in response to that story. There is always an Emmaus. Biblical archeologists tell us that the exact location of the village of Emmaus is unknown. There are at least nine possible locations that are candidates for the small biblical town, but historians tell us there is no record of any village called Emmaus in any other ancient source. We simply do not know where Emmaus might have been. Tradition tells us that it might have been a place just a few hours walk from Jerusalem. However, New Testament scholars, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, suggest that Emmaus is nowhere. Emmaus

This is a special musical performance of A Festival Introit for Easter by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with Eli Rachlin on trumpet at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.