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

This is a special musical presentation of Zion's Walls sun by John Graham at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Once Covid hit us in 2019, many things changed in our lives.  One of the things that changed for us is having dinner parties.  I love to have people over for dinner, and I really have missed this experience.  I love to set the table with my good dishes and have it look beautiful and inviting when people gather to eat.  I especially love it when everyone sits down at the table to simply enjoy the food, the conversation, and the entire experience of table fellowship.  I really believe that extending hospitality to others by eating together is a vital, deeply meaningful aspect of what it means to be human.  The writer of Luke’s gospel understood meal-time hospitality and table fellowship.  Luke’s gospel contains more meal-time scenes than any of the other gospels.   In fact, meal-time experiences and dinner party gatherings were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life.  In Luke, Jesus is frequently eating, drinking, partying, and participating in table fellowshi

This morning I share with you the story of a woman who had a life-changing, transformational experience. One morning, this woman decided she would attempt to get up, get ready, and go to morning worship.  As she did this, she was again reminded of how twisted and broken her body had become.  The pain in her back was at times excruciating and, when she moved to get ready, she knew the pain she was feeling meant she would be moving quite slowly.  Her back always seemed to hurt, and she was so bent over that when she looked at other people she had to look out of the corner of her eye.  She could only see others by looking sideways because she could not lift her head to look up.  The truth of the matter was that she spent most of her time looking at the ground.  And, if she was finally able to actually see someone face to face, other people’s eyes quickly turned away as though they did not want to acknowledge the fact that they had been watching her.  She had lived like this for eighteen long years, and after all

Tonight at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan, the Chancel Choir shared special music with special soloists as the church worked to raise over $35,000 for a new roof on the church. Watch to experience and appreciate all of the music and cheer on the church as they work on raising the needed money for the project!

This is a special musical presentation of Shall We Gather At The River by members of the Faith Bells, Deb Borton-McDonough, Elaine Harrison, Annie Mayer and Addie Thompson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

I must be honest with you this morning. There are days when our scripture readings present us with words that cause clergy to cringe when, after reading, they have to say, “The gospel good news of our Lord.” Today is one of those days. Today, I truthfully say to you that I am finding the gospel of Jesus Christ increasingly countercultural in our present context. Following Jesus takes courage. Jesus addresses this in our gospel reading today as he talks about discipleship. It would be so easy to gloss over this reading and say Jesus really did not mean what he is saying here.  It would be so easy to simply water down his words and sugar coat them.  It would be so easy to use another reading, one that provides us with a sugar-coated Christianity; but that would also leave us with a sugar-coated cross.  Quite frankly, eliminating what this passage is all about would mean eliminating an honest, lay it on the line call to discipleship.  So, today we are going to wrestle with this gospel reading and tackle this cal

This last week during Bible School, we learned about the story of the Good Samaritan, what it means to be a good neighbor, and how we are to love others even if they are very different from us.  And on Wednesday, we focused on perfect love that casts out fear, the perfect love of God, that enables us to look at people who are different from us and not fear them. Yes, do not fear!  We need to hear this message which is also found in our gospel reading for today because one of the realities of present day twenty-first century life is that fear and anxiety seem to increasingly shape our lives.  All we need do is look at the mass shootings that happen on a weekly basis or think about the past 2 ½ years of COVID and the anxiety that has grown in people’s lives due to isolation and fear of this virus.  And think about climate change.  If we take an honest look at the facts, the science and the statistics, while thinking about the growing threat of a changing climate, it is daunting, and we cannot but feel a sense o

This is a special musical presentation of Keep Your Lamps by the summer choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of I Love You, Lord by Zach Hereza on French Horn at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

In his book, Jacob the Baker: Gentle Wisdom For a Complicated World, Jewish poet-philosopher, scholar and theologian, Noah BenShea, writes, “Either the key to a man's wallet is in his heart, or the key to a man's heart is in his wallet.  So, unless you express your charity, you are locked inside your greed.”  Did you hear that?  Unless you express your charity, unless you live generously by giving of what you have to others, you are locked inside, you are imprisoned in your greed!  Wow!!  I think Jesus would have liked what BenShea has to say because Jesus also has something to say about greed.  Today, we hear Jesus tell us, “Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”  Today, Jesus takes us to a place where most of us do not want to go as he draws us into a conversation about money.  Quite frankly, talking about money makes us uncomfortable as individuals, uncomfortable within the context of our faith communities, and causes great anxiety.  Many of us learn from a very early age that conversati

Who do you trust? Who do you allow yourself to completely relax and be yourself with? Who do you share your deepest secrets, insecurities, questions and joy with? Who do you know you can count on, no matter what? Today we hear about trusting God through prayer, food and sabbath In the story from Exodus, the Israelites have been freed from the oppressive powers of the Egyptian empire, released from Pharoah’s exhausting dictates to do more They’re wandering through the wilderness toward the promised land And they begin to complain It’s been about six weeks since they fled Egypt and their memory seems to betray them /         /         / Just before this passage they complain “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you [God] have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Ex 16:3) It has been observed that the Israelites were taken out of the Egyptian empire at the Red Sea, but it took all o

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

This is a special musical presentation of Holy God, We Praise Your Name by members of the Faith Lutheran Handbell Choir (Faith Bells), Elaine Harrison, Ann Mayer, Addie Thompson and Rich Weingartner.

As we look at today’s gospel reading, I am going to start right out by saying that I think far too often Martha has gotten a bad rap. However, I have not always felt this way.  So, let me explain. I have three siblings.  I have always been the studious one, while my siblings have focused on other things.  I have always taken great pride in my studious work, and I frequently judged my siblings for not being as serious about their educational experience.  So, when I look at today’s gospel reading from the perspective of my life, I realize that for many years I justified my actions by seeing myself as a Mary, thinking I was better because I was really choosing to do the “right” thing, the better thing, the main thing, choosing what I believed was more or most important.   For years, my understanding of this gospel story went something like this:  Martha is doing her best to show hospitality to Jesus and the rest of her guests, busily working away on the food, while Mary does something very unusual.  Normally in

This is a special musical performance of Holy Thy Name by the Summer Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Another mass shooting, another community devasted, another community deeply grieves. Supreme Court decisions that increasingly show not only a lack of care for the oppressed, but also lack of care for the earth itself. The world seems so very heavy right now. So, I needed to hear Jesus’ words today, words that always reroute us in the only direction God desires for us – the way of love and compassion for all others.  Have you ever met people who become so focused on the law that, for them, their narrow interpretation of the law is ultimate?  When focus on the law – the ten commandments – becomes ultimate, the law is no longer received as gift. Then, obedience to the law becomes behavioral proof of faith.  When this happens, the gospel message is no longer a word of love but one of judgement.  Grace is no longer understood as God’s gift to ALL people. When law becomes our focus, then our actions must be justified by our understanding of and obedience to the law as humanly defined.  Far too often, this perspect

This is a special musical performance of He's Always Been Faithful by Tammy Heilman at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

On this holiday weekend as we celebrate the formation and founding of our country and our independence as a nation, we frequently find ourselves thinking about certain characteristics associated with American identity. Characteristics like individualism, invulnerability, and self-sufficiency are often celebrated. Today, in our present time and culture, we are also seeing the growing disease of extreme individualism and Christian nationalism. These malignant ideologies are not at all representative of Christianity, and they do not at all represent the Christian message or connect in any way to the teachings of Jesus. Frankly, perceptions of American individualism and self-sufficiency infuse almost every aspect of our lives, including religion.  We, as a people, preserve and perpetuate the myth that we are a nation defined by the idea that people should set their own course through life.  This is reflected in so many aspects of culture.  Think of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.”  Think of movies in which famous

This is a special musical presentation of Here and Now by Michael W. Smith sung by Ryan Thompson at Faith Lutheran Chuch in Okamos, Michigan.

Matters of the Heart Please pray with me aloud or in your heart our Prayer of the Day: Sovereign God, ruler of all hearts, you call us to obey you, and you favor us with true freedom.  Keep us faithful to the ways of your Son, that, leaving behind all that hinders us, we may steadfastly follow your paths, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.  I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me night after night. I have set the Lord always before me; because God is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope…You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.        Psalm 16:7-9. 11 I think I inherited it.  Typically, I’ll wake up one or two times during the night, often from dreams, sometimes disturbing, sometimes pleasant, always bizarre.  My dad was like that, waking up at 3:00 in the morning, lying on the couch, reading.  Of