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

We are living in a time when being the church is not easy.  Quite frankly, being the church is increasingly difficult and, across the board, we find more and more people leaving the church.  As faith communities, we are having to learn some new ways of being together.  We truly need to seek out and re-ground as people of faith because our lives are filled with countless distractions.  The church, along with multiple public institutions, is experiencing a massive shift within culture.  That shift affects participation on many levels and there are likely multiple reasons for this shift.  It is as though we are living at a pivot point in time.  We know some of the ways we have done things aren’t working as they used to, but we are not yet sure what the next thing will look like.  Certain events in our lives also create these shifts or pivot points in time.  These are moments that divide time, a point from which things will never be the same again.  And, quite frankly, such moments often create a sense of fear an

This is a special music presentation of Without Love by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with soloist Ursula Blasmacher on viola.

If you remember last week’s gospel reading which Rich so powerfully proclaimed, Jesus had gone to his hometown synagogue and read words from the great prophet Isaiah, saying:  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach good news to the poor."  Well, today, we get the rest of the story.  After reading from Isaiah, Jesus sat down.  The people’s eyes were fixed on him, and he said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  The first public word spoken by Jesus himself in Luke's gospel is the word "today."  That word is a favorite of Luke's.  It appears twelve times in Luke's gospel.  "Today" conveys a real sense of immediacy.  Furthermore, Jesus unabashedly says the words of Isaiah are "fulfilled in your hearing."  Hearing Jesus' words, connecting them with the fulfillment of scripture and seeing Jesus' ministry of "release" on behalf of the poor – all of this Jesus claims is taking place right now, today, in and through him as he lives out the love of God for all people.  Well, initially, t

Grace to you and peace from God and Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Please pray with me. Lord, we are named as your children and we ask that you be with us now. 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. Amen. The second reading today is familiar to many people and looks at how the body of Christ is made up of individuals, yet still is one body. When we are baptized, we are named as a child of God and welcomed into the body of Christ. We do this as a celebration of the unity we have in Christ and that we are fully welcomed and are part of the body of Christ through no action of our own, but through God’s grace. We don’t question people before they are baptized as to what they will bring to the church, who they are, what plans or goals they have, who they plan on loving, or anything. They are baptized into the body of Christ exactly as they are, a child of God. Since, in our tradition, people are usually baptized as infants,

This is a special musical presentation of Speak, O Lord by the Chance Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. 

This is a special musical presentation of a violin solo of Bouree by Handel presented by Rachel Ngasala

This is a special musical performance of Joy & Elation by Dobrinski by the Faith Bells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of The Light of the World by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan with soloist Chris Lewis.

“I will not keep silent.  I will not stop talking, proclaiming or preaching…. I will not pause.  I will not rest, for the sake of the precious city God loved and left, and I will keep this up until every nation and king can see that Jerusalem has been declared innocent and lifted up to a place of glory and honor.”  (Working Preacher, Anathea Portier-Young)   These are the words of the prophet Isaiah as he boldly acts as intercessor for Jerusalem.  Following the exile, the Babylonians may have been defeated, but when the Jewish people returned to their land, they found it decimated.  It looked rather like a desert.  The restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem met countless obstacles and delays.  The people had been full of hope, but now they are battling deteriorating morale caused by broken dreams and crumbling faith.  Their very identity had been battered by loss and they could no longer understand that God delighted in them.  They felt God had turned away in indifference.           So, the prophet Isaiah la

Life at times seems filled with hard places.  There are few among us who have not experienced hard times, hard challenges in life.  This past week, I have experienced one of those hard places.  On Monday, it was the first anniversary of my father’s death.   And, on that morning, my son Andrew called me to tell me they had just gotten back from seeing the doctor and the baby Natalie was carrying had died.  I know, there are few among us who do not know what it feels like to be in hard places, or to be overwhelmed and even underprepared for life’s hard places, especially those that hit unexpectedly.  And, during those hard times, in those hard places in life, I think we long for and want to hear the words, “Do not be afraid.”  I think we want to hear words of comfort, and I think we long to hear a sure and certain word from God.  So, I find it heartening that the lectionary readings for this Sunday focus on these things as God’s message to us on this day tells us we are God’s beloved. On this day, we begin with

This is a special musical performance by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan of Holy Spirit, Flame and Fire.

On this Sunday, we get to experience something that seldom seems to happen on a Sunday.  We get to experience the Feast Day of Epiphany.  You see, the day of Epiphany is one of those fixed days in the church calendar which usually seems to fall on a week day and not so much on a Sunday.  Therefore, we rarely get this gospel reading in the Sunday lectionary.  But this year, the day of Epiphany is actually today, so we get this marvelous reading from Matthew’s gospel.  The word “Epiphany” refers to something “made manifest” or “revealed.” When you come up with a brilliant idea, you might say that you’ve had an “epiphany moment.”  Today, the word “Epiphany” communicates to us the “showing forth” or “the revelation” of Christ in the world.  Epiphany takes its themes from the journey of a group of pagan magi who left familiar territory to find the Christ child and explore this child’s authenticity for themselves.  And, as Barbara Brown Taylor says “today’s [reading] from Matthew offers a rare opportunity to rescue

This is a special musical performance of The Magi Who to Bethlehem Did Go from the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan with a solo by Tammy Heilman.

This is a special musical performance of Gesu Bambino, a Trombone Solo by Drew Kipela performed at the 10pm Christmas Eve service at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of He Shall Be Called performed by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan during the 10pm Christmas Eve service at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Joy of All The Earth by the Chancel Choir at  Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan with a solo by Ryan Thompson at the 10pm Christmas Eve service.

This is a special musical performance of O Holy Night performed by Lindsay Snyder at the 10pm Christmas Eve service at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of O Holy Night performed by Chris & Paige Lewis at the 4pm Christmas Eve service at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This year, Ken and I were gifted with two new grandbabies.  And, next year, another grandbaby will make his or her appearance in our lives.  I must say, there is nothing like the joy of seeing each of these babies for the first time.  I think many of us can relate to that feeling and experience.  Seeing and holding a new baby is a precious, holy experience, and I do believe it changes us.  Seeing the beauty of a baby’s face and recognizing in that face the miracle and gift of life that has been born into this world is an experience treasured by almost everyone.  And, on this night, we come to this place wanting to catch a glimpse of a baby.   We come to get a glimpse of the Christ child who has been born among us, born to us and born for us.  The Christmas season gets so very busy and many of us find our lives filled up with all kinds of time-consuming details – schedules to keep, presents to buy and wrap, parties and concerts to attend, rooms to clean, decorations to put up and get in place, food to prepare.

This is a special musical performance from the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan of Holy is His Name with Linda Hirt and Gwynne Kadrofske accompanying on Flute.