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

This past week, I came upon this phrase, “Easter reminds us that some of God’s best work happens when the world is darkest.”  That phrase had deep meaning for me as we are presently living in a metaphorically dark time.  With COVID-19 raging throughout the world, we are experiencing a real time of darkness as we live with much uncertainty, disruption, loss, fear, grief, and doubt. And, yet, as we experience this form of darkness, the message of Easter reminds us that God has the last word and God is at work when the world seems to be at its darkest. When we experience times like this, we tend to experience more doubt. We question God’s presence to us and with us, and we ask the question, “Where is God in all of what is happening?”  We ask this because we cannot always see what God is doing as we experience pain. And, we often are afraid to be honest about the fact that we have doubt.  However, as theologian Paul Tillich suggests, doubt is a very necessary element in faith. In fact, a living faith includes dou

Safety is something that is on all our minds these days.  And, along with that concern, most of us are living with a certain amount of fear.  As we live with this stay at home order, we do so because we are rightly concerned for people’s safety, concerned for the safety of those in our families, and concerned for our own personal safety and security.  We do this because we are justifiably fearful of this COVID-19 virus and the way it is spreading in our world.  While this concern is necessary and required, the intentional focus on safety intensifies our fear and anxiety as it permeates our culture and each of our lives. Well, in the last chapters of Matthew’s gospel, we find people who were fearful and intently focused on safety, their own safety and security. When Jesus was betrayed and arrested, the disciples were fearful and so they sought safety in the cover of darkness by deserting Jesus and fleeing the garden.  Peter was fearful and sought safety in that courtyard by trying to stay a distance away from

Join us for service on Good Friday during 2020 Holy Week.

Join us for Maundy Thursday Service during holy week 2020.

Join us for Palm Sunday Service during holy week 2020.

In today’s gospel reading, we are invited into a story, a story that simply did not just take place a long time ago, but a story that is truly our story, here and now.  Because of the nature of this gospel passage, I am going to do something different.  Before we hear the reading, I would like to share just a few insights with you.  The community to which the Gospel of John is addressed may very well have been expelled from the synagogue for confessing Jesus as Messiah.  They may well have felt isolated and abandoned.  So, as you experience hearing today’s reading about the isolated blind man, ask yourself how this passage might address the isolated and the abandoned, not only within John’s community, but also the isolated and abandoned among us today.  How does this story address us as we face a whole new form of living in isolation? Not only does this reading address the nature of this early Christian community, it also works to undermine a simplistic understanding of sin.  When the disciples voice a common

This is a special musical presentation of God So Loved the World by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, MIchigan.

I grew up as a sailor.  From the age of two, my dad had me flying across the water on a Hobie 16, propelled by harnessing the power of the wind.  I came to know my husband, Corey, through sailing, and sailing remains a special part of my life.  My dad gave me a poster that I hung wherever I was, moving through high school, college and even into early adulthood that had an anonymous quote “You cannot direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails.”  Sailing is a challenging and invigorating sport because of the lack of control you truly have.  You are totally dependent on the wind.  Wind shifts, dies, and puffs so powerfully it tips you over, flinging you off the boat and into the water… as a little girl I would beg my dad “Promise you won’t let us tip!”  He would say, “I can’t promise that we won’t tip but I’ll promise that I’ll do my best to keep us from tipping.”  As teenagers Corey and I became more daring and tried to see how many times we could tip in one day...enjoying the rush of being overpowered by t

Many of you are probably familiar with the term Theme and Variations.  This term describes a very common form of musical composition.  When used, this compositional technique first presents a simple theme or idea and, after it is initially stated, repeats that theme but alters it and embellishes it.  There can be multiple variations presented, based on this simple theme, but each variation can always be traced back to the original presentation. Today’s Old Testament reading from Genesis as well as the Gospel reading from Matthew present a form of theme and variations.  You see, there are not really three temptations in our Gospel story.   There are three variations of the same basic theme.  As from the beginning, the devil always tempts his victims to reach for, access, and attain power. As we look at our reading from Genesis, I want to first make clear that this ancient story was written to help explain why, in God’s creation, there came to be sin and death.  It is not a story to be interpreted as literal. 

This is a special musical performance of My Jesus Walked by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Communion Meditation by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

We are a people who love having the freedom to make choices, and we like to have multiple options before us as we make those choices.  Quite honestly, having options to choose from in any given situation has become a staple of the American dream.  We are daily confronted with dozens of choices like deciding on fries or chips, a large drink or a small drink, the list simply goes on and on.  Right now, we clearly see that political agendas of all flavors are being sold on a platform of choices.  And, quite frankly, we are blind to the privilege we have when we are given so many choices on a regular basis.  Today’s scripture readings are about the choices we make and then how we live with the consequences of our decisions. On the one hand, there are certain factors in life in which we don’t, or maybe even can’t, choose.  We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents or our families. We do not choose the historical time or the country in which we were born. And, at the end of life, most of us do not c

There are people in my family, and probably also in yours, who, when they get hungry and need food, tend to get out of sorts, even angry.  In other words, when they get hungry, their actions and behavior show it.  Their hunger causes them to be cranky and snap at others.  They develop that condition we often describe as “hangry.”  When we see this condition arise, we usually quickly work to fix the problem as soon as possible.   Hunger is something that prompts a response.  And, throughout history, people have used the sensation of hunger to prompt a certain kind of response, a deeper sense of spiritual awareness in their lives by practicing fasting.  Fasting is spiritual practice utilized by people of many religious backgrounds in the belief that, by doing so, one will be drawn closer to God.  When used as a spiritual practice, it can help create more space for worship and reflection in one’s life.  Fasting and worship are the spiritual practices described in our reading from Isaiah this morning as we find t

This is a special musical presentation of Chariot by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical presentation of Eventide by the Faith Bells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

I know many of us have favorite passages in scripture, certain passages that have deep meaning for us.  I also know there are some passages that are essential for all of us as we walk and live this journey of faith.  And, one of those passages is today’s reading from Micah.  While we do not know a lot about the prophet Micah, we do know the justice issues he faced during the eighth century B.C. were not unlike some of the issues we face today.  Micah lived in the land of Judah during a time of great wealth and prosperity.  On the outside it appeared that God’s people were thriving, but on the inside, they were rotting to the core. Political corruption was pervasive.  Economic exploitation was rampant!  Ethical violations were voracious. The nation had drifted so far from God they could no longer tell the difference between good and evil. Even though they were going through the outward motions of worship, their hearts were far from the Lord.  Much like America today, their society was characterized by overconf

This is a special musical performance of Offertory by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical presentation for the song For Everyone Born at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical presentation for the song Footprints in the Sand at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Grace to you and peace from God and Jesus, our advocate, Lord, and Savior. Amen. Please pray with me. Lord, we are called to be advocates for all your children especially those who are vulnerable in society. Open our minds and hearts so that your word may be made clearer to us. Help us to hear the message of love, peace, and unity, so that we may be strong advocates for your kin-dom of wholeness on Earth. Amen.   Imagine for a moment that you are at your daily job. Just sitting or standing doing your daily work - teaching, working on a computer, driving around, whatever it is you do on a daily basis. Then, out of the blue comes this strange man, maybe a little rough looking, someone you haven’t seen before. He stops you in what you are doing and tells you to follow him and he’ll give you a new job of working to make people’s lives better. He wants you to drop everything, your job, your family, your friends, your whole life and just follow him to do something strange and new. Do you? Do you suddenly upset your