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

Year C – First Sunday in Lent – March 9, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Luke 4:1-13 Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and from our Lord, Jesus Christ, in whose death and resurrection we share through the gift of Holy Baptism. Amen.   *** What a joyful day!  Today we celebrate Stella who has been adopted into God’s family as our sibling in Christ… through the waters of baptism and through God’s word… God’s holy promise… spoken for us. God’s promise to Stella today reminds us that this promise is for us as well… that even though we may find ourselves lost and alone in the wilderness, God’s promise to us in our baptism is that God is with us… always…  God promises to meet us in our wilderness, and that through water and word, our sins are drowned each day… and each day we are made new, forgiven, and loved. Through baptism, we share in our Lord’s death and resurrection… dying daily to our sin … and rising anew each day, embracing the promise of new life with Christ…  Each day we are reborn, reconciled to God

Year C – Ash Wednesday – March 5, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21   Remember that you are dust… and also, that you are loved. Ash Wednesday is the day we begin Lent, and we honor this day by considering our mortality… that we are made of the same dust and dirt as all the rest of Creation, and when we die… which we all will, we return to the same dust and dirt. It might seem odd to consider love, while also considering the dustiness of mortality … until you consider WHO made you from the dust and dirt… and WHY. Yes, you are dust… and dirt… but you were formed by God’s own hands… formed in love. And you live because of the first gift God gives each of us… God’s own breath… a gift given in love. God breathed into you… breathed life and love into you… so that you might live. Remembering that you are dust… also means… remembering that you are loved. And when the day comes that you return to dust… remember that you return to the presence of God… you return to the source of everlasting

Transfiguration of Our Lord March 2, 2025 Faith, Okemos Exodus 34:27-35, Psalm 99, 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, Luke 9:28-43a   Changed From Glory into Glory   Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven to earth come down! Fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; Visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart.   Breathe, oh, breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast; let us all in thee inherit; let us find thy promised rest. Take away the love of sinning; Alpha and Omega be; End of faith as its being, set our hearts at liberty.   [Today, called the Transfiguration of Our Lord, is, in the church year, the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany.  Epiphany - the season of the Father revealing to us the glory of his Son, at once fully divine and fully human.  Today we see Jesus, together with Peter and John and James, going up on a mountain to pray.  And there Jesus is “transfigured.” ]       And while he was

This is a special musical presentation of We Will Glorify, sung by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Chuch in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of Mercy sung by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Chuch in Okemos, Michigan.

Year C – 7th Sunday after Epiphany Pastor Megan Floyd February 23, 2025     Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and from our savior, Jesus Christ, who longs for us to be consumed by love. Amen. *** This passage is remarkably beautiful for the way it draws us into Christ’s vision of justice… and of course… love. But… that doesn’t make it easy. It’s a well-known passage… love your enemies… turn the other cheek,… but it often misrepresents Christians as people who will and should continue to subject themselves to abuse. It is definitely not that. I can remember, even as a child, I would hear this and think… nope… no thanks… if someone slaps me and I turn the other cheek, then I’ll get slapped twice. No, thank you. What I have since learned is that this passage is really about justice, and holding others accountable for their abuse and harm… but doing so in a non-violent and loving way. Retaliation and violence cannot drive out evil… only love can do that. After all… even those who perpetrate harm again

This is a special musical presentation of Above All sung by Christopher Lewis at Faith Lutheran Chuch in Okemos, Michigan.

Year C – 6th Sunday after Epiphany   Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and from our savior, Jesus Christ, who came to bring good news to the poor. Amen. *** This one always used to make me squirm a bit… you know? No matter how much I shifted in my seat… I could not escape its conviction. We are still getting to know each other, but you have probably figured out that I love to laugh… And, of course, I like to be comfortable… and yes, I hope to maintain my good reputation. But when I read this… it’s like Jesus is standing there in front of me… shaking his head and looking disappointed. I don’t like that. But I know I’m not alone. We all like our comforts, and we all prefer financial security and a positive reputation. So why does Jesus say… woe to us... woe to us who are rich… woe to us who are filled… woe to us who are laughing and well thought of. Woe to us… who put our trust… our faith… in our earthly resources… *** I want to take a little detour and tell you about a time in my life when my faith

Year C - 5th Sunday after Epiphany Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our Savior… the holy seed in whom we place our hope.  Amen. *** It is a fact of life that we don’t get to choose when we live, but I think it is safe to say… we are living in challenging times. The intentional chaos and resulting uncertainty of the past month is a lot of political theater, and not entirely unexpected… but what has really thrown me for a loop are these new attacks on the faithful, steadfast work of mainstream Christians with a long history of serving the poor and vulnerable. ELCA Lutherans and our many siblings in Christ, who faithfully LIVE and PREACH God’s saving message of mercy for all people and love for all people, are being challenged as adversaries to the current cultural powers. But… Love… and mercy… caring for the vulnerable and centering those on the margins are …and have always been… central to Jesus’ teaching and contrary to cultural norms. And yet… here we are… these are chall

This is a special musical presentation of Deep Water 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 you are sitting there thinking I have heard those names before…Anna and Simeon…it’s because some years, we get this gospel reading the Sunday after Christmas, and some years when Feb 2 is a Sunday, we hear them anew…now we are not that far removed from the last Christmas, but for a variety of reasons, at least for me, it feels likes Christmas and our celebration of the birth of Jesus seems like forever ago… So it is on this somewhat chilly, very snowy Sunday morning we hear of these two figures…Anna and Simeon who further the story of the baby born in a manger no matter if that feels like just yesterday or forever ago.  Some pastors may go straight for the joy that Anna and Simeon much have felt…playing up their child-like joy at seeing Jesus, face-to-face.  I never want to be guilty of diminishing joy, but my own experience is that joy is often not as joyful as it could be unless it has engaged in a long, drawn-out stare down with something that threatens to push it out of sight--joy often vanquishes s

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

Wow, here we are on another precipice. When I started back on June 26, 2013, we were on a precipice ready to jump off and start our work together. When we jump off we never know where will land. Thankfully as followers of Jesus Christ we know that we are not alone. We believe the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us. We have been through some major changes, and they all happened within 5-6 months in 2024. Walter passed away February 16. Thankfully we had a vice president in the wings to take over. In March we began counting money at the church. Our former secretary shared with members that I would not be putting my name in to be considered for your pastor. In one week in June, we essentially had 2 staff changes. That is a lot for any system to handle. We gathered our gifts and moved forward. We had a great VBS. Thankfully we found a new secretary within a relatively short amount of time. Thus, Randy and I could give up doing the bulletin and E-news. Thanks to Mark Kadrofske for planning and coordinating y

This is a special musical presentation of Good and Simple Gifts by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of The Heavens Declare the Glory of God by the Faith Bells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Many of us here know the anxiety that goes into planning a wedding. Whether large or small there are many variables. Between people, flowers, site for wedding and reception, food & drink, etc. In the end we find out that something will not be just the way we wanted it. My parents, whose wedding was on May 9, 1959, had the experience of running out of food and drink. My dad grew up out in the country, thus many of his family and friends were farmers and it took them longer to be able to get to the reception which was about 40 minutes or so away. My parents both had large families, thus what they had budgeted didn’t seem to be covering. Someone who’s family my mother lived with her senior year in high school, after her parents had divorced, provided funds to keep things going. My parents were in a bind and Elmer came through to keep things going as if nothing had had been wrong. Weddings are always hopefully joyous occasions, but with so many variables, something is bound to go wrong. Thus Elmer, behind the

This is a special musical presentation of the Wade In The Living Water at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Relationship is about connection. Baptism is about a relationship or connection with God in Jesus Christ and the beloved community. Even though Jesus’ baptism was not like ours, it is still about connection. The Hebrew people had been waiting many years for the prophesied Messiah. So here was John out in the wilderness baptizing people with the baptism of repentance. He really stuck out and people came to find him in the wilderness. John was bristling the church leaders. The Hebrew people were not hearing this kind of message from them, and they were waiting in hope and expectation. John clarified for them that he was not the Messiah that they had been waiting for. The Message puts it this way: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. She’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. She’ll place everything true in its proper place befor

We have begun another new year, 2025. It usually takes a little while to remember this when writing the date. Some people set resolutions or goals for the year. This may help us to decide where our focus will be. Our country will be looking and run differently. There are many different views on whether it will be good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. I’m not sure how much control we have over it one way or the other. For me the bottom line is where will our focus be and whom will we trust. Today we begin a new season, Epiphany. Epiphany means manifestation. Where we place our focus and whom we trust has everything to do with how we represent or manifest Jesus in our world. God has a plan of how God wants to be represented. In our lessons today, we see contrasts and descriptions of this. Folklore has us thinking that there were three kings. In reality they were Magi or also called Wise Men, and it doesn’t really say that there were three. The Magi or Wise Men originated in Persia. They were followers of Zoroastri