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

This is a special musical performance of Great Is Thy Faithfulness by handbell duet Addie Thompson and Rich Weingartner at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As some of you already know, hospitality and welcome are at the top of my list when it comes to the way we live together in community.  And, when extending hospitality to others, one of the best ways to show welcome is by sharing a meal together and spending time in meaningful conversation with others.  In fact, I really believe that extending hospitality to others by eating together is a vital 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 parties were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life and Christian community.  In Luke, Jesus is frequently eating, drinking, partying and participating in table fellowship with all kinds of people.  Eating with people from various backgrounds and walks of life was a frequent occurrence for Jesus whether it was on the way to Emma

This is a special musical performance of People Need the Lord by soloist John Graham on Saxophone.

This is a special musical performance of Great is the Lord by soloist John Graham on Saxophone.

This is a special musical performance of Find us Faithful by soloist John Graham on Saxophone.

Last week, I read an interesting article by David French entitled Another Pop-Culture Christian Loses His Faith.  In the article, French writes: As our culture changes, secularizes, and grows less tolerant of Christian orthodoxy, I’m noticing a pattern in many of the people who fall away:  They’re retreating from faith not because they’re ignorant of its key tenets and lack the necessary intellectual, theological depth but rather because the adversity of adherence to increasingly counter-cultural doctrine grows too great.   Friends, I must be honest, the gospel of Jesus Christ is increasingly counter-cultural, and it takes courage to faithfully follow Jesus in our culture. Jesus addresses this in our gospel reading today as he talks about discipleship.  Quite frankly, today’s gospel reading is one of those passages that causes clergy to cringe when they read it and then have to say, “The gospel good news of our Lord.”  It would be so easy to gloss over this reading and say Jesus really did not mean what he is

This is a special musical presentation of I will Call Upon The Lord by the Tenor / Bass Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan 

Have no fear little flock, have no fear, little flock, For the Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom. Have no fear, little flock! [Marjorie A. Jillson, b.1931] Oh, how I need to hear these words on this day!  I need to hear them 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 last weekend and we again see why people live in fear.  Even the youngest children among us now must go through the ritual of active shooting drills as part of their educational experience, something that I am sure creates anxiety and fear within these young minds and bodies.  Ryan Thompson shared a blog article with me this last week that talked about this ritual, one I fear that is more commonplace in children’s lives than the ritual of worship.  In the article sociologist, Kieran Healy, writes: A fundamental lesson of Sociology is that, in the course of making everyday life seem orderly and sensible, a

This is a special musical presentation of Be Thou My Vision by flautist Gwynne Kadrofske at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

PASTOR ELLEN:  In today’s gospel reading, Jesus teaches about prayer by giving us what we now call The Lord’s Prayer.  We often think of the Lord’s Prayer as an efficient way to pray. We know it by heart, and it is used as the perfect close for meetings and gatherings.  Yet, far too often, we recite this prayer by rote, not even thinking about what we are saying.   It is also important to acknowledge that, in this “can-do” culture in which we live, prayer too easily becomes an attempt to change God and aggrandize ourselves instead of what it is truly meant to be.  You see, prayer really is an interior practice that brings change to the one who is praying, change to our very selves.  This will always happen if we stand calmly in God’s safe presence, allowing God to invade our hearts and heal us.  So, it is interesting to note there is something about this beloved prayer, The Lord’s Prayer, that emphasizes the need to let go and trust God.  It is interesting that each petition in this prayer contains some sort

This is a special musical performance of Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee by Tammy Heilman at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of How Can I Keep from Singing? from the Treble Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. 

The parable of the Good Samaritan is probably one of the best-known stories Jesus told.  As we make our faith journey through life, this story provides a scriptural GPS, routing 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, the law is ultimate?  When focus on the law – the ten commandments – becomes ultimate, the law is no longer received as gift, and 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.  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 perspective allows us to live with the illusion that we are in control.  And, it reinforces the idea that a life of discipleship is a life marked by knowing good from evil, rather than a life of knowing God and God’s mercy and grace.  The lawy

This is a special musical performance of O Beautiful For Spacious Skies by Pastor Ellen Schoepf. 

On this holiday weekend, as we explore today’s gospel reading, we again discover Christ’s call to be vulnerable and hospitable, two aspects of life that I fear are diminishing in our culture.  For this reason, I find Jesus’ words to us today to be very meaningful.  They are also helpful because he talks about community.  And, we live in a culture that is continually experiencing the disintegration of community life. As Americans, we have fallen in love with the idea of the self-made person.  We love the rags to riches story.  We have created the myth that if you make it to the top of your profession, you deserve a huge salary because you are the one responsible for getting to the top.   We have this sense in which we are to live as invulnerable human beings.  This rugged individual ethos permeates virtually every aspect of our lives.  It infuses the way in which we think about achievement, education, vocation, the way we are to live and raise our children, the way we perceive others, the way we relate to othe

Over the past year, our synod’s Publicly Engaged Church Committee has spent a considerable amount of time focusing on the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  So, as I studied today’s gospel reading, I was reminded of Bonhoeffer’s book The Cost of Discipleship in which he wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  Bonhoeffer knew discipleship is not easy.  He knew that there comes a time in each person’s faith journey when it is clearly and unequivocally necessary to declare the depth of one’s commitment to Christ.  And, today, we hear Jesus teaching about this aspect of discipleship. Today, we come to a major turning point in Luke’s telling of the Jesus story.  Jesus “sets his face” toward Jerusalem, meaning he sets his face to the cross.  Jesus is resolute and single-minded in purpose.  And, as he and the disciples are on their way, someone asks if he or she can come along.  Eager to follow Jesus, this person says, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Now, you would think this is someth

This is a special musical performance of Love in any Language by Deb Borton at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Today we had an update from Dave Sacco from Engineers without Borders on the water project that we have been supporting as a congregation.

This is a special musical performance by Bob Nelson of My Savior and My God at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan