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

This is a special musical performance of Blindman by the Joyful Noise Childrens' Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of I Am The Resurrection and the Life by the Joyful Noise Childrens' Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Where Your Treasure Is by the Joyful Noise Childrens' Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Plenty Good Room by the Faith Bells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of In the Name of the Father by Stan Pethel by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

When I was serving my year of internship in the Fort Worth, Texas area and Trinity Sunday approached, my supervisor told me that I would be preaching on that day.  He said he always had his interns preach on Trinity Sunday.  The reason?  Well, it is not the most popular festival Sunday for preachers, a majority of whom dread this Sunday, because the Trinity is all about church doctrine.  Other festival Sundays during the church year celebrate events.  Throughout the church year we focus on the many events that took place in the life of Christ.  But, on Trinity Sunday, we celebrate a church doctrine, one that is notoriously hard to understand. The doctrine of the Trinity itself cannot be found explicitly in scripture. Yet, it is scriptural to its core. It is the result of approximately 250 years of the early church reflecting on scripture and on its experience of God's self-revelation, as those encounters are recorded in scripture.  I love the way Nadia Bolz Weber talks about the shaping of this doctrine.  She

This is a special musical performance of Spirit of God, Abide With Me by the Faith Lutheran Church's Chancel Choir.

This is a special musical performance by the Faith Lutheran Church's Flutes of Faith Flute Choir.

The Spirit is a-moving and the activity of the moving Spirit is dangerous indeed!  Those who talk about wanting to feel God’s “sweet, sweet spirit in this place,” or those who say they are “spiritual but not religious” may need to question that thinking as we hear the words given to us today about the movement of the Spirit.  We tend to read a line like Romans 8:26 about the Spirit helping us “in our weakness,” and think, “Oh, that is pleasant, so sweet.”  However, such thoughts of pleasantness fail to put that verse in its proper context, and we quickly forget the prevailing image Paul gives us in this passage from Romans is that of childbirth – “the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains.”  Now, any woman present in this gathering who has actively given birth can testify and bear witness to the fact that childbirth is neither a sweet process, nor is it a gentle, comfortable, pleasant process.  And, I can imagine that there comes a point in almost every birthing process when every woman yearns, mayb

This is a special musical performance of God Has Gone Up With A Merry Shout by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

John 17:6-19; Easter 7B; 5/13/2018                         Pastor Ellen Schoepf       Some of you I am sure remember those iconic ‘70’s television ads for Calgon which used the slogan, “Calgon, take me away.”  The commercials encouraged us to slow down and relax with a bubble bath using Calgon bath beads.  It was a call to let go of the real, often difficult “stuff” of our daily lives and escape to a seemingly whole different dimension where we would have a lush, luxurious, heavenly spa experience.  It was all about experiencing escape from life as it is. There is something very tempting about escaping from the world, and we all pursue escape in one way or another. This desire to escape from the challenges of life is as ancient as human history.  The human desire to escape is definitely as ancient as Christian faith and, I think religion often tends to intensify this desire.  For people of faith, once we experience and begin to understand what is holy, set apart and good about life together within the context

This is a special musical performance of Sing of the Lord's Goodness by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Today, our gospel reading from John is a continuation of the words we heard Jesus speaking last Sunday.  This whole section of John’s gospel is known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse because he is preparing the disciples for his death.  He knows he is going to die and he will be leaving them.  In John’s gospel, these words are some of the last words Jesus speaks during his earthly life, and his last words are all about love.  Jesus speaks of his love for the disciples and, by extension, his love for us.  Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you, and so you should love one another.” In our culture, the word “love” is highly ambiguous.  In Greek, there are many different words for different types of love that become translated into English simply as the word love.  In today’s passage, the word that has been translated as love comes from the Greek word agape.  This kind of love describes the excellence of character that God has by nature.  It is all about relationship and it is the kind of love we find

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

As many of you know, Ken and I now have seven grandchildren, three of them having entered this big, beautiful world in the past eight months.  And, I must say, I love being a grandma.  I love watching the little one’s grow, and I marvel at the rapid changes in their lives, changes that are daily taking place.  One of the things I find so fascinating is the independence that begins to develop at a very young age.  It does not take long for a little one to begin saying, “Me do it myself!” That self-will and determination set the stage for many challenges as children want to do multiple things for themselves, some of which are not always healthy and wise.  That fierce sense of independence and the development of self-identity is something that we as Americans hold dear.  Independence of self and the “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” mentality is a treasured aspect of American identity.  However, it is also something that runs contrary to Jesus’ teaching, especially today.  I love what Nadia Bolz-Weber says a

This is a special musical performance of Love is Come Again performed by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Psalm 23, adapted and performed by Ryan & Addie Thompson

This is a special musical presentation by the Joyful Noise Childrens' Choir of the songs: Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land and Lord, I life Your Name on High. 

This is a special musical Flute solo presentation by Gwen Kadrofske of Songs Without Words by Felix Mendelssohn.

Pastor Ellen: The 23rd Psalm is probably the most beloved and most well-known Psalms in scripture.  It is frequently the scripture passage families choose to be used for funerals of a loved one.  It is one of the go-to-texts for connection with God in times of trouble, tragedy and concern.  Many people know this Psalm by heart and the first three verses, describing peaceful, pastoral images, seem to provide enormous comfort to people.  So, I think it is fitting that on this Earth Day, we are given a scripture passage that describes this beautiful pastoral scene.   Natalie: We 21st century earth dwellers live in a world of pavement and concrete, a world of hustle and bustle, a world of traffic and long indoor work days. Our waking hours are often filled with stress. On our time off many of us seek refuge, if only for an hour or two, at parks or other places with green pastures and still waters. The imagery of the 23rd Psalm leads us mentally to a place where we can experience earth in its calmer natural state