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

Transfiguration Sunday – 02/11/2024 Do we desire to know Jesus more intimately? You may say, of course all Christians do. What could that look like? Jesus does desire an intimate relationship with each one of us. One way to begin answering this question is to look at our experience in relationship with human beings. Some people only have one best friend their entire lives, others have had a number of them. Hopefully if you have or have had a partner/spouse, they have been your best friend on many levels and this involves intimacy. We learn to appreciate these relationships, but it has not always been easy. It does mean being honest with each other and this doesn’t always make us comfortable. Even though Jesus knows everything about us, it is often difficult to be honest with him. Having intimacy with another means that we need to be honest with ourselves. Who are we? Intimacy with another means that we trust them enough to tell us the truth even if it hurts. This is why we don’t always have a lot of best

This is a special musical presentation of They Shall Soar Like Eagles by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Epiphany 5 – Healing Service – 02/04/2024   Today we are going to do something new. This is what the time of transition is about, trying new things. Can I see a show of hands, how many have ever been to a healing service? By the end of the service today, you can all say that you have.   I remember my aunt and uncle taking me to one in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was after Christmas and I was supposed to play Christmas carols. We did not get to that until later in the evening. There was a pastor laying hands on people and praying for them. Sometimes they fell backward, and people had to catch them.   Even at my age at the time, I wondered what was going on. I have no doubts that some of the people may have been healed. The Holy Spirit can definitely move people in this way. I would dare say that most of us would not be comfortable with this and wonder if it was partly a show.   This is not what I am expecting to have happen here this morning, but that is not up to me. I do believe that the Holy Spirit has b

This is a special musical presentation of Open the Eyes of My Heart by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Luke 10:25-37; RIC Sunday; January 28, 2024 Additional texts: Amos 5:21-24; Romans 8:31-39 Amos and Romans texts from The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation, ©2007 Future Church Gospel from First Nations Version, ©2021 by Rain Ministries Inc. Rich Weingartner Grace to you and peace from God our parent, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Welcome to RIC (Reconciling in Christ) Sunday. As noted in your bulletin - this is a Sunday where we, and hundreds of other RIC congregations across the nation celebrate, remember, and rededicate themselves to the commitments they made when they became RIC. Those commitments are outlined in our welcome statement on the front of your bulletin. More information about RIC, a little history, and the reason we keep focusing on RIC will be in your February newsletter. On a personal note, this congregation and our RIC status and journey, have been a true blessing for me. To be able to fully be myself in the presence of God and this community is such a freein

How you stepped outside of your comfort zone lately? Our lives can become so much in a rut, and we stay there, because it is comfortable. Each of our jobs or activities can become predictable. If we have been doing it long enough, we often know what to expect. We are studying the Old Testament in confirmation right now. It seems history continues to repeat itself. From the beginning human beings have had a choice, listen to God or tell God that we know better. Are we willing to trust God or do we let our anxiety listen to people who want to keep others under control? We continue to have many voices to listen to today and some are louder than others. It continues to be apparent that some people are following voices that don’t make sense to us. As Christians answering Jesus’ call to follow him, we are called to listen with keener and keener ears. The messages that we hear in our culture are going to become more confusing and not truthful. This is where I challenge you and I to stop and listen to the message and

This is a special musical presentation of Wade in the Living Water, performed today by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with a solo by Chris Lewis at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Second Sunday after Epiphany January 14, 2024 Faith, Okemos I Samuel 3:1-20, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, I Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51 O God, you search me and you know me.  All my thoughts lie open to your gaze.  When I walk or lie down you are before me; ever the maker and keeper of my days. You know my resting and my rising.  You discern my purpose from afar, and with love everlasting you besiege me; in ev’ry moment of life or death you are. Before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you have known its meaning through and through.  You are with me beyond my understanding; God of my present, my past, and future, too. Although your Spirit is upon me, still I search for shelter from your light.  There is nowhere on earth I can escape you; even the darkness is radiant in your sight. For you created me and shaped me, gave me life within my mother’s womb.  For the wonder of who I am, I praise you; safe in your hands, all creation is made new.                                                                            

This is a special musical presentation of Peace Is Our Prayer, performed today by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

The Baptism of our Lord – 01/07/2024             We make decisions every day of how close we want to get to someone, physically and emotionally. How much do we want to know about another person’s business? What will be expected with having this information?           There are times that we are drawn in and find ourselves entangled and wonder how we got there. There are other times, especially if we can learn from those entanglements that we then draw boundary lines and filter or maybe even choose not to associate with a person.           It is about taking care of ourselves. Caretakers often have a problem with getting taken advantage of. We can easily forget that God did not say that we are responsible to take care of everyone’s needs. Healthy relationships involve people who are able to have a give and take which involves constant communication.           Today we are challenged to look at our relationship with God. As Lutherans we believe that this can happen at infant baptism. Although we also be

This is a special musical presentation of When the Angels' Song is Silent, performed today by the Faith Lutheran Singing Sinners Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of Mary Did You Know, performed today by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Christmas Eve 2023             Throughout this past year, we all have had our joys and struggles. Some of our experiences we have considered good news and blessings and others not. Tonight, we gather together to hear the story, maybe a few for the first time and for others, we may have lost count. What might the good news or blessings be in this old story?           This old story is about the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, our Messiah, God coming to earth to save us, God’s people. It is easy to glamorize this story, but when we do that, we may miss the good news of the story. The time period that Jesus was born into was not an easy time. Transportation had not been developed and there were many laws or customs that were expected to adhere to.           When we begin to look at how Jesus’ birth came to be, it rocked many boats. Mary was a teenager who had not had sex with Joseph, and they were not married. Mary’s family could have disowned her, and Joseph could have told people that he was not the father

Today was the 2023 Christmas Pageant . Come and celebrate the Christmas season with youth from Faith Lutheran.

Endings have beginnings and beginnings have endings. So often we dread endings. The endings of a life, sometimes the endings of a school year, a graduation or position. As emotionally difficult as they can be, there can also be a sense of celebration in each one.   Normally when there is an ending, there will be something or someone that we will be missing. This is when we come more to the realization that hopefully we can be thankful for these people and times. At 63, I have been through a number of seasons in life as many of you also have been. We learn to savor moments with people and things.   Beginnings can be difficult also, but it is what keeps us going and moving on to new moments to savor. In our gospel lesson today, we hear the beginning of our first Gospel ever written. In Mark we hear, The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.   Context is always important. This Gospel was believed to have been written in AD 70. This is when the Roman Empire destroyed and looted the templ

This is a special musical presentation of Climb to the Highest Mountain, performed today by the Singing Sinners at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of Waiting for Bethlehem's Light, performed today by the Chancel Choir with Gwynne Kadrofske on flute at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Happy New Year!! We had our New Year’s Eve gathering at the Williamston Theater last night. We usually don’t stay up until midnight to welcome the new church year in. Part of what the church year has done is to try and offset the regular calendar. This is how we got December 25 for Christmas, as it used to be a pagan holiday. So, what do we do differently in Advent? In some sense it is a penitential time, similar to Lent. We always talk about slowing down, but how often do we really slow down. It often gets busier. Even though we hear the words in our Gospel lesson this morning to stay awake, be alert, do we? The busier we are the less that we see and are able to experience. Jesus paints quite a picture in our Gospel lesson today of what his second coming may look like. Quite stark language, During the days after this trouble comes, the sun will grow dark, and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Jesus had just told his disci

In some churches when I say that we have come to end of our stewardship campaign, people often breathe a sigh of relief. The thought may be that we don’t have to hear money talk again for another year. If you have noticed here at Faith, the past two Sundays have not been about money. It has been about how Faith has embraced people and how we use the resources that we have been given to take care of and are shared with our neighbors. Over the years, stewardship has gotten a bad rap. It is all how we define stewardship. I have said once or twice that the word comes from the old English and means keeper of the pig sty. To be a steward means that we take care of what has been entrusted to us. What has been entrusted to us is time, talent and treasure. This really does include our relationships, with ourselves and others. So, stewardship is about how we take care of all of these things and people. The bottom line is that we as Christians believe that we do not own anything, God owns everything. This way of thinkin

This is a special musical presentation of For the Beauty of the Earth, performed today by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with Gwynne Kadrofske on flute at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.