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

This is a special musical presentation of How Firm a Foundation by the Faith Bells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Luke 8:26-39; Pride Sunday; Pentecost 2; June 19, 2022 Rich Weingartner   Grace to you and peace from God our parent, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.   Happy Pride everyone. Happy Father’s Day to all those who are father figures in people’s lives. And Happy Juneteenth Day. There is a lot going on today, which is great because it reflects the wide diversity of God’s creation - all of which deserves to be celebrated. As an RIC congregation we have committed ourselves to ensure God’s message of radical and unlimited love is shared and proclaimed to all. We committed to make ourselves better through learning, confession, and growth. In fact, it was 5 years ago yesterday that we at Faith celebrated our new RIC identity with our Diversity Sunday service. So Happy 5th Anniversary! We hope that today’s service and today’s message helps us more fully live into our promise as an RIC congregation. Parts of today’s service were specifically chosen because of our focus on celebrating Pride and to work to ensu

Today, listen to a special musical performance of River in Judea from the summer choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Today's sermon was provided by: C.J. Clark: Director of Living Water Ministries .  Living Water Ministries is the Youth Ministry organization of the ELCA in our state. Living Water Ministries is based at Stony Lake Camp in New Era. It is a safe place for all of God’s children to experience intentional community centered in Christ where they are formed in their faith, developed as leaders, and equipped as servants of the gospel. This approach has world-changing implications as participants experience the love of Christ in each member of the community and return home to share that same love with others. This year, Living Water Ministries is offering a week of camp experience, free to all kids and youth in our Synod. If you are interested in having your child/youth participate, please speak to Pam Williams.

This is a special musical presentation of Fill Me Now by Bob Nelson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. 

Today, we celebrate the birth of the church. Today, we come and gather here in one place for a birthday party, and it is a dangerous one.  In fact, this party has been a dangerous event from day one.   Our story begins on an ordinary day, roughly 2,000 years ago when a small group of despairing believers isolated themselves all together in one place. These disciples huddled together in isolation because they were afraid.  It is quite likely they were afraid of outsiders, so they stayed clustered and cloistered together as one group.  Now, honestly, had they known what was about to happen, they would likely have separated and spread out.  You see, after all they had been through, what was about to happen would have freaked out even the bravest amongst them.   As they clustered together in their small group, they were in danger but not from outsiders.  The danger they were in as they huddled all together in one place, was from a God who was about to crash the party and bring in everyone they were trying to avoi

Acts 16:16-34; Easter 7C; 5/29/22 Paul and Silas bound in jail Had no money for to go their bail Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on Paul and Silas thought they was lost Dungeon shook and the chains come off Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.   Throughout history, praying and the singing of hymns have been subversive actions people of faith have taken to bring about change within the established order. These actions have moved people to engage culture, to act, and to work for change. We saw this during the Civil Rights Movement as people subversively worked for equality, civil rights, and policy change in society. People of faith routinely sang hymns like We Shall Overcome and Keep Your Eyes On The Prize, the hymn I just quoted. The time is upon us when we must do this again as we face our culture’s brokenness.  We must confess the idolatry of our worship of guns. We must confess our malignant ideology of extreme individualism and personal rights, face our captivity to guns, face the evil plague of gun v

This is a special musical presentation of Bless His Holy Name by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As I think back to when my kids were little, I remember times when I would leave them with a babysitter so I could attend an event.  I remember that, at some point in their development over those early years, each one of my kids experienced a form of separation anxiety.  They would cry big crocodile tears as I would leave, and I in turn would feel terrible that I was leaving them.  The truth of the matter is they stopped crying shortly after I left, and they were happy and content the rest of the time I was gone.  I am sure most of you who are parents have had this same experience with your children.  Separation anxiety is a normal part of development.  Sigmund Freud once said such “anxiety in children is originally nothing other than the expression of the fact they are feeling the loss of the person they love.”  I am also sure that most of you have some memory of what it was like to be the one who is left, and you probably have felt the anxiety that accompanies such an experience.  Some may remember feeling

This is a special musical performance of Entertain the Angels by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As we have seen yet again in another horrific mass shooting, we as a people need to have a confrontation with self – confront our malevolent viewpoints and malignant ideologies.  We need to confront the sin of white supremacy, racism, and hatred, and move into a new place, live into a new story, a new understanding of God’s love for this world.  When talking about such confrontation, Richard Rohr writes: Every viewpoint is a view from a point. Unless we recognize and admit our own personal and cultural viewpoints, we will never know how to decentralize our own perspective. We will live with a high degree of illusion and blindness that brings much suffering into the world. [As we work to recognize this,] the love of God is the source of all truth. Only an outer and positive reference point utterly grounds the mind and heart. People with a distorted image of self, world, or God will be largely incapable of experiencing what is really real in the world. They will see things through a narrow keyhole. They’ll see

This is a special musical performance of The King of Love My Shepherd Is, a duet by Tammy Heilman and Ryan Thomson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Fritz Kreisler was one of the best violinists the world has known.  A story is told of Kreisler as he once traveled from Hamburg, Germany to give a concert in London.  Kreisler had about an hour before his boat sailed, so he wandered into a music shop.  The proprietor asked if he could look at the violin Kreisler was carrying.  The store owner then vanished only to return accompanied by two policemen, one of whom told the violinist, “You are under arrest.” “What for?” asked Kreisler. The policemen responded, “You have Fritz Kreisler’s violin.” Kreisler said, “I am Fritz Kreisler.” The cop said, “You can’t pull that on us.  Come along to the station.”  As Kreisler’s boat was soon to sail, he faced a crisis.  His identity was being questioned and there was no time for prolonged explanations.  Kreisler asked for his violin and played a piece for which he was well known.  “Now are you satisfied?” he asked.  They were.  Kreisler’s identity was revealed through his action and the playing he exhibited. His actions s

This is a special musical performance of Run, Mary Run by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir.

Over the past few weeks, I have experienced the joy of meeting my new granddaughter, seeing my grandson, and visiting my kids, I have experienced the ordeal of getting sick with Covid for a second time, again living in quarantine for two weeks, I have experienced the challenge of facing multiple travel obstacles, grieving as I missed Holy Week and Easter services with you, and finally getting home and experiencing the joy of our time with Rev. Dr. Jim Antal. Quite frankly, I feel like I have been on an exhausting, emotional rollercoaster. As we look at our gospel reading this morning, I think the disciples have been on an exhausting, emotional rollercoaster, one much more intense and traumatic than the one I experienced, and they are now experiencing emotional overload.  First, there had been that tension-filled yet joyous entry into Jerusalem which was followed by a Passover meal unlike any other. Then, there was that intense experience of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest.  They had witnessed jeering mobs as Jesus

Dr. Rev. Jim Antal provides the sermon to Faith Lutheran Church in Okamos, Michigan on April 24, 2022.

This is a special musical performance of Rain Down by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Gaelic Alleluia by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran church in Okemos, Michigan.

John 20:1-18   There is so much chaos in today's scripture passage. We don't like chaos. We like our scripture to be neat, straightforward and tidy Just how we like our schedules and our plans for the next great thing Just how we like ourselves, smart and on top of things Just how we like God, predictable and in control       /   But on this Easter morning, in the story of Jesus' resurrection Our likes are challenged as we're thrown into chaos and unknowing We zoom in on Mary Magdalene and enter the messiness of her reality Friday she witnessed the horror of the crucifixion of her friend, her teacher Her beloved He was cruelly crucified and discarded Saturday she honored the Sabbath as best she could Perhaps out of a chaotic mixture of obligation, fear, devotion and desperation And this morning, while it is still dark, she leaves her home for Jesus' tomb. Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons Jesus cast out Mary Magdalene, Jesus closest companion Mary Magdalene, who's been up all night with blood-shot eyes a

This is the recording of the Good Friday service on August 15, 2022 at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.