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Your Faith Journey

All of us are on a journey of faith in our lives. At Faith Lutheran in Okemos, Michigan we bring people one a journey of faith each week and share that journey with the world.
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Mar 28, 2024

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

Mar 17, 2024

Last time I was here was the weekend of the birth of my Grandson – 6 years ago. So much has happened since then. Covid – change in pastors, and so much more.


Through it all we pray and hope that Jesus has walked with you and me and that we have noticed his presence and we have shared him with others.


I don’t often share personal memories in sermons but today there is a relevant thread.


I started seminary in the fall of 1976. Young, newly married, first apartment, and starting seminary. Preaching Class. I had grown up my whole life in the church and heard sermons every Sunday. (cause I had to be dying to not go to church) But now I was to be the preacher and say something profound in a sermon. My first sermon - I was assigned Jeremiah 31:31-34 for Lent 5
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.


A few years later, I graduated from seminary and received my first call in this synod. I went to my first congregation where I began visiting an active member of the congregation, dying of cancer. Her death was my first funeral, the little country church was packed. Again to preach and say something profound. Text – Lent 5 John 12:23-25, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”


I don’t remember much about either sermon, but these texts for Lent 5 always stuck with me – because in the end it didn’t matter much what I said, what matters is – Did the hears see Jesus? Did they know Jesus’ presence, compassion, love, grace?


The history of the protestant reformation has a written record, but also a record by artist Lucas Cranach. He was a friend and colleague of Martin Luther, lived in Wittenberg, and was also under the protection of Elector John of Saxony; he was the Elector’s court painter of Saxony.


He has a painting that also was reproduced by virtue of the newly invented printing press – which catches the essence of preaching, and this text – We wish to see Jesus. It shows Martin Luther preaching, and the congregation listening, but between Martin and the congregation, is Jesus on the cross. The point is: as Luther is preaching, the congregation is seeing Jesus, not Luther. That is the goal of preaching – helping everyone – including the preacher to SEE JESUS!
Today is the last regular Sunday in Lent before Palm Sunday and Holy Week. We read from John, Jesus has been anointed by Mary Magdalene, entered Jerusalem with palms, and now begins his last teaching before the LAST SUPPER.


Some Greeks – foreigners, seek to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew, Andrew tells Jesus.
The Greeks were thinkers. They had witnesses the rituals and sacrifices in the temple. They had experienced all the rules and regulation that the priests and religious leaders has put in place. They had come to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. They had heard about Jesus, and this new thing God was doing, and they asked to SEE JESUS. They did not want another ritual, they did not want another sacrifice. They wanted to see Jesus.


The ancient scriptures have a way of still being relevant today.


The Greeks were troubled by all the things religious leaders and worshipers were doing in the temple that did not relate to God. TODAY we have rising numbers of people – either nones (who have no religious preference, or – spiritual, but not religious, those who don’t find Jesus in today’s church, or those wounded by the church.


People are still looking for Jesus.


Lots of things happen in today’s churches, and not all of it points to Jesus.


We have the rise of Christian Nationalism on one hand and on the other hand we have churches working on issues of justice, that can’t articulate the rational about how that relates to Jesus.
If the preaching of the church, if the ministry of the church, if the outreach of the church does not point to Jesus, then what is its purpose?


In all we say and do, it is about Jesus.


Just like when two children are talking about the children’s sermon. The pastor asks questions, and one kid says to the other – the answer is always Jesus.


Our Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton once said, “We have to be able to articulate Jesus or we look like the action wing of a political party. “


It is not just about SEEING JESUS from afar. It is about seeing Jesus, knowing Jesus is present in the world, knowing Jesus cares and loves us, and knowing that forgiveness, grace, and acceptance are offered to us without us having to deserve, pay, inherit, or earn it. The price is paid, the cost carried by Jesus.


It is not just seeing a visual picture of Jesus. It is about seeing and hearing Jesus in our words and our actions. Seeing Jesus in the face of the refugee, the homeless, the abused, the grieving, the hunger… Them seeing Jesus in us and hearing Jesus as we reach out to those in need and to all of us as we seek to navigate this crazy world.


WE TOO need to see Jesus. There is a crisis of mental stress in the world, loneliness, fear, anxiety, and all the rest. We need to see Jesus in our lives, in the community, in the world – in church, in preaching so we can be empowered to continue to be Jesus and share Jesus with others. And find see Jesus and his work for ourselves, to remind us of God’s grace, love, forgiveness, and hope.


My guess is that the Greeks that come to see Jesus are looking for something more. Something that would transform them. Something that would change their life, help them lose their current life and gain something new!


That is the heart of Jesus response to them and the crowd.


One of my favorite theologians, Frederick Buechner, put it this way:


Doing the work you're best at doing and like to do best, hearing great music, having great fun, seeing something very beautiful, weeping at somebody else's tragedy—all these experiences are related to the experience of salvation because in all of them two things happen:


(1) you lose yourself, and
(2) you find that you are more fully yourself than usual


A closer analogy is the experience of love. When you love somebody, it is no longer yourself who is the center of your own universe. It is the one you love who is. You forget yourself. You deny yourself. You give of yourself, so that by all the rules of arithmetical logic there should be less of yourself than there was to start with. Only by a curious paradox there is more. You feel that at last you really are yourself.


The experience of salvation involves the same paradox. Jesus put it like this: "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."


You give up your old self-seeking self for the love of others and thereby become more yourself at last. You must die with Christ so that you can rise with him, Paul says. It is what baptism is all about.


You do not love God so that, tit for tat, God will then save you. To love God is to be saved. To love anybody is a significant step along the way.


We do not love God and live for GOD so we will go to Heaven. Whichever side of the grave you happen to be talking about, to love God and live for GOD is God’s Kingdom here, now. A taste of heaven.


It is a gift, not an achievement.


You can make yourself moral. You can make yourself religious. But you can't make yourself love.
"We love," John says, "Because GOD first loved us." (1 John 4:19)


Jesus is in Jerusalem, he is looking ahead to the Last Supper, his arrest, dying on a cross on Good Friday, and then the gift of NEW LIFE that comes on Easter morning as the stone is rolled away.
Jesus demonstrates God's love for us, giving his life so that we might have life. It takes a life time then for us to contemplate that love and transform ourselves to be giving that love away.


I am here today to make a presentation after lunch on the demographics of your community. What are the folks that live here like, folks who drive by, who see the church, but may not know what goes one here.


The projections say that of the folks that drive down Dobie Road, 61% either do not know that life giving love of Jesus, have drifted away, or have been wounded by a church – especially churches that rely on legalism and shaming – instead of sharing the life giving love of Jesus. That is your mission field, sharing Jesus with one another, and finding connections to share that love from here out into the lives of the people that drive by every day. Let them see Jesus!!

Mar 17, 2024

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

Mar 14, 2024

Join us for the Lenten Service this evening.

 
Mar 11, 2024

What Wondrous Love Is This?!

“This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made, we will rejoice, we will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it…”

For me singing this simple song is sometimes a helpful antidote in the days when my mind and heart seems dominated by harsh, sorrowful, cynical, judgmental, or angry thoughts and emotions.  Sometimes my thoughts and feelings about myself or about my family, or about our governmental leaders, or about pretty much everybody else are more negative than positive.  Sometimes that has included my thoughts and feelings about God.  I can be pretty good at grumbling.   

The story of the Israelites in the wilderness is one of four ancient stories of God’s children grumbling, murmuring, complaining about how tough they had it on their long journey to the promised land.  Though God had provided water to quench their thirst, manna and quail to satisfy their hunger, a cloud to guide them during the day and a fire to guide them during the night, they would have much preferred the equivalent of a hamburger at Culver’s or an Olive Garden salad, and a Hampton Inn for nightly lodging.  They were good at whining against both God and Moses.  [“We detest this miserable food.”]

Their situation only worsened when at one point in their journey they were afflicted, many of them fatally, by poisonous serpents. 

Sometimes it takes something deeply frightening, something life-threatening to make us aware of our negativity, our griping, our “bitching” if you will.  Here, I think, humbling and desperately “the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.’  So Moses prayed for the people.”  

And here, as always, when we recognize our failure to trust that God has never forsaken us, has never misled us…and never will, even in the worst of circumstances, the wondrous love of God about which get to sing after this sermon is graciously, wonderfully, and powerfully given to us.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it in on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at and live.”  So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. 

And in John’s gospel, Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  

It was in wondrous love that God gave his wilderness children a visible sign that his love, his grace, was greater than their rebellion, greater than their murmuring, their complaining, their failure to trust him.  The wondrous mystery of God’s love is that even and maybe especially those things we most fear, like being bitten by a poisonous snake, or fear that we might die of thirst or hunger, or die at the hands of those who hate us, all are transformed by God to become signs of healing and of new life. 

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!

Now Jesus says to us (in the third person), “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Here is the wondrous love of God:  Jesus takes into himself all the poison, all the vicious hatred, all the cunning lies, all the grumbling, all the fears of the world; and is lifted up on the cross. There the Son of Man and Son of God dies for us. 

What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul, to bear the dreadful curse for my soul? 

And through his dreadful death on the cross, the antidote for the poison of the world, the poison in our own hearts and souls is given to us.

When you and I think about the cross, maybe either before and/or after we receive  Holy Communion, when we take into ourselves Jesus’ body and blood, we make the sign of the cross…, may we remember and know that we have eternal life.

The serpents may still abound, the lies we hear, and yes, the lies we tell about ourselves, the lies that we and all the peoples and creatures of this world are not radically loved, all these lies are neutralized by Jesus’ death on the cross.  We and all people are radically loved.  We know this by receiving and embracing the God’s gift of faith day after day:  everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

The writer to the letter to the Ephesians, probably a protege of St. Paul, wrote these beautiful words:

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

What to me is so beautiful about these words is two-fold: 1) the very capacity to believe what Jesus did for us on the cross is a [daily] gift from God, not our own making; and 2) the outcome of this God-given faith each day is a life of good works which God has already set-up for us to do!  [To me this is eternal life, a life filled with love, filled with good works created and enabled by God to be our way of life.]

Made newly alive every day, we do what comes naturally out of that newness.  After worship last Sunday many of gathered around tables, and we talked about the various ways God drew us to this congregation.  We talked about how over and over again we get to be our new selves in giving and receiving love for each other and for the world around us.  We shared, albeit briefly, about how each of us in our own unique way is doing good work as we grow and mature in grace. 

Our God-given work in the months of transition still ahead is actually pretty simple:  it is to prayerfully and thoughtfully discern before we call our next pastoral leader, the good works which God has already prepared beforehand to be our future way of life together.

Looking at Jesus lifted up on the cross, we daily confess our sins, our alienation from God and from each other, whether family or friend, stranger or foe.  We confess our grumbling.  We hear anew each day, in our souls, through that death we are forgiven.  We get to live a forgiven, grateful, joyful life of good works prearranged by God.

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul! 

[Let’s sing it together.]

Amen.

Mar 7, 2024

Join us for our Lenten Service at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Mar 3, 2024

This is a special musical presentation of There Is A Green Hill Far Away by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Mar 3, 2024

Worship is about connecting with God in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament there were a number of temples in Jerusalem. God gave King Solomon the task of building the first temple. It was a sacred place that specific sacrifices were carried out to God by a priest. It was where God was believed to be present, where God wanted to connect with people.

As temples were demolished and built up God’s presence was not confined to the temple. The temple of course was still a meeting place for God’s people, and they still did sacrifices, but as we heard in today’s lesson, they were using it to make money. Jesus was not happy about it and this is one of the only times in scripture that we see Jesus angry.

Can you imagine Jesus with a whip of cords chasing the merchants out of the temple? On one hand it was customary for people to buy animals for a sacrifice, but they were extorting people. Jesus tried to tell them that this system was not what God wanted anymore. Jesus was God’s presence.

Of course, the Jewish leaders then asked Jesus, what authority do you have to say this? Jesus answer was not literal. He said, destroy the temple and in three days I will raise it up. They responded, the temple has been under construction for forty-six years, so how he could it be raised up in three days.

Jesus was speaking of his body as the temple. After he was raised, his disciples remembered that he had said this. This helped them to believe the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

There was also a group of Jews who had chosen to believe in Jesus. They had been basically kicked out of their community. Jesus’ actions and words sustained them in their belief in Jesus. They then further believed that God’s presence was in Jesus.

Jesus was trying to introduce a new system, a new way or place to experience God’s presence. On one hand Jesus was pointing out to the people in the market place that they abused the system and were more interested in exploiting people in their practices. But on the other hand, Jesus was turning their system upside down and the Jewish authorities were wondering who the person was that seemed to be changing what God had taught them.

In reality, God had been trying for thousands of years to get people’s attention. He provided leaders, judges, kings and prophets and they still continued to break the covenant that they had agreed to. God decided that God needed to come down now and try to help them get back to their covenant. It seemed the only way to get their attention was to turn the system upside down and in this case, literally turn the tables over.

Most of us have been brought up coming to church to learn about God in Jesus Christ. Lutherans have not always been good about teaching how to share what we learn outside the doors of the church. Thus, today I would like us to think about the importance we place on the sacredness of this building and specifically today the sanctuary.

This past Tuesday we had the presidential primaries here. Someone did not like the fact that they were being held in a church. Technically they were not even in the sanctuary. Somehow just the building represented something that they were uncomfortable with.

For us this is a place to gather to worship our Creator, Redeemer and sustainer. It is a place that the beloved community comes together to be strengthened and nourished through word and sacrament to carry out Jesus’ work. We believe that through word and sacrament that Jesus is in us. Thus, when we leave the doors of the church, Jesus then goes out into the world.

So even when we believe that we come to meet Jesus in this worship space, Jesus leaves with us when we leave. Jesus is in people not objects. I had a conversation with a colleague this past week about how we think about reverencing the altar. I pondered the question, are we reverencing an object or is Jesus presence in the altar? I often do it, but do I know why.

Maybe we should be reverencing each other. If we believe that Jesus presence is in us, how do people sense that? How does our life, through word and action represent Jesus?

It is very easy to compartmentalize our faith into this building, just as the people did in our Gospel lesson for today. How often do we talk about Jesus outside this place? Our building and our worship time together, is a gift to be able to have what we need, to bear the cross together.

Sometimes the older that we get, the easier it is just to come and worship the same way that we have always done it. It is comfortable and yes it’s familiar, but does it motivate us to enliven Jesus in us and stay enlivened in us when we leave worship. My experience thus far in worship here, is that we are kind of in the middle of the road.

There are some who do not like sung liturgy. There are some who will sing more lively songs, but it is not always what they are comfortable with. It is not about right or wrong, but it is about what people experience when they come to worship.

Today after worship we will have food and fellowship and begin to answer the big question: who are we by discussing these three questions:

  1. What initially brought you to Faith Lutheran Church?
  2. What keeps you involved at Faith Lutheran Church?
  3. If you were to create an advertisement to invite someone who is new to the community to Faith Lutheran Church, what would you include in the advertisement?

I believe that what we are trying to do is describe who we are and really what Jesus likes look to others here and out in the world. How do we represent Jesus as Christians who worship at Faith Lutheran Church? This sounds like something that is difficult to do.

In reality, it is, but remember that we are not producing Jesus. God in Jesus Christ is in us as individuals and has gifted Faith Lutheran Church with all of you and those who are not able to be with us today. It is about sharing the gifts that have been brought together in this beloved community in the best way that we can. We will never be perfect at it and God knows that. I don’t believe most people are looking for any perfect group or person.

Our challenge today is to rediscover our giftedness and how we share it. We gather to be strengthened through word and sacrament here in worship to experience Jesus. Jesus then goes backout with us into the world. This is how we allow Jesus to shine through us that others may experience his love and be invited in his presence.

Feb 26, 2024

This is a special musical presentation of Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Feb 26, 2024

Lent 2 – B 02/25/2024

Most of us have played the game, “Follow the Leader”. It involves making choices whether to follow a person or not over and through things. There are some whom you can trust to keep you safe, there are others whom you need to be careful with. We have many people today who say, come, follow me.

 

What kind of criteria do we set up for whom we decide to follow? Number one, it is a good idea to look at their history and what kind of choices they have made in the past. Number two, how have they treated people especially those who have little. Number three what have they gained, knowledge or money, power and control.

 

There are no perfect human leaders. This week we will be the site for 3 precincts for the presidential primary elections, even though we probably know who the candidates are. As I said last Sunday, I would not tell you who to vote for, but these are criteria that I would use in making a decision. Above all ask God.

 

Healthy leadership in our work places are more and more difficult to find. There is so much anxiety on whether you have a job and how you look to the boss. Who is trying to please who? Doing a good honest job is not always the ticket today. We have experienced in many different forms a lack of work ethic.

 

That leads me to the question, “Who are people following?” As Christians, I believe that we are called to have a healthy work ethic. I worked at a Friendly’s while going to seminary. After having worked the middle shift as a manager, the dishwasher for the night was a high school guy. He came in to pick up his check and quit on the spot. I felt that was irresponsible on the part of he and his parents. Yes there could have been extenuating circumstances, but at least 2 weeks’ notice. I worked half of the shift then as the dishwasher.

 

Of course, as Christians, we are called to follow Jesus. Which we can never fully do. In our Gospel lesson for today Jesus is trying to let his disciples know what will be coming, that he must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  Peter was not looking for this in a leader, one to follow, thus he took Jesus aside and said no this won’t be happening.

 

Jesus said, Peter your anxiety has gotten the best of you, you are setting your mind on earthly things and not trusting me, your leader. Thus, if you really want to follow me, you must let go of your anxiety and wanting to have it your way and take up your cross and follow me.

 

Now too often this gets interpreted to be, look at me, I have to do this all by myself. This is not what Jesus is saying. He is saying that we can’t rely on ourselves for direction. We are called to rely on Jesus which means studying God’s word and listening to others to discern how to carry the cross together.

 

Jesus models what it means to carry the cross until he physically has to do it. Jesus is trying to clue them in that following him and carrying his cross together may not be what we are looking for. It will mean realizing that we don’t have the all the answers and focusing only on us is not following him.

 

Jesus is not asking us to throw our lives away when he says we need to deny ourselves and lose our lives. It is giving our wills over to Jesus. It is realizing that we own nothing in God’s eyes as in reality, God owns everything. It is about forever trying to discern God’s will for our life and living that out.

 

This is not what saves us, but it is a response to God’s love in Jesus Christ. We are called to live our lives for the sake of others. This is what Jesus modeled for us, as recorded in our Gospels. Even to the end Jesus lived out God’s will.

 

It is not easy, and it creates anxiety as it did for Peter. There are times we would like to say, no Jesus it’s not supposed to be this way. Anxiety comes when we are trying to protect ourselves. Not all anxiety is bad. It can be a red flag, but it can also be something that clouds our view of God’s will for our lives and life of our community of faith.

 

Change brings anxiety. We are in the process of transition, and we just lost one of our faithful witnesses. Walter was becoming the president of Faith Lutheran Church. When I think of the criteria that I suggested in looking to follow a leader, Number one, it is a good idea to look at their history and what kind of choices they have made in the past. Number two, how have they treated people especially those who have little. Number three what have they gained, knowledge or money, power and control. I believe I can see Walter fulfilling these to the best of his human ability.

 

He was also a valued voice on the transition team. From what I have heard and seen, Walter was a sure and steady leader. He listened to people, he helped guide Faith through some conflicted times. Walter was not out for glory as I believe what he prayed for is that this beloved community would become healthier and more focused on doing God’s will at this time.

 

Walter saw changes that could be made to make Faith a healthier beloved community. When a trusted and valued leader moves on, it is important for us to stop and consider what he taught us by the way he led. It looks like our newly elected vice president, Randy Royalty will be taking over as president. Walter asked Randy to serve as vice president, not knowing that his life on earth was drawing to a close. I do believe Walter relied on God for direction here also.

 

What Jesus is calling us to do is to bear the cross together. We need leaders and we need followers. At certain times in our lives, we are called to be one or the other. Whether we are a leader or a follower it is all bearing the cross together.

 

God has been teaching through leaders, including Jesus, that we are called to put our wills aside for the care of God’s people.

Thomas Shepherdpub.1693

  1. Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
    And all the world go free?
    No, there’s a cross for everyone,
    And there’s a cross for us.

v. 2 by Anonymous/Unknown

  1. How happy are the saints above,
    Who once went sorr’wing here!
    But now they taste unmingled love,
    And joy without a tear.

v. 3 by George N. Allenpub.1844

  1. The consecrated cross we’ll bear
    Till death shall set us free;
    And then go home our crown to wear,
    For there’s a crown for us.

 

Jesus calls us today to follow him first, to bear his cross together. As we are deciding who we follow, consider these criteria: Number one, it is a good idea to look at their history and what kind of choices they have made in the past. Number two, how have they treated people especially those who have little. Number three what have they gained, knowledge or money, power and control.

 

Jesus modeled this for us and now calls us to follow him and that bearing the cross together we may model what it means to follow Jesus to carry and model his life giving love to this power driven world.

 

Feb 22, 2024

Join us for the Lenten Service this evening.

Feb 18, 2024

This is a special musical presentation of Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley / Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Feb 18, 2024

Lent I – B 02/18/24

Our Gospel lesson today puts Jesus in the wilderness. It is not a wilderness that we are used to in our part of the country. In our wilderness we think of different kinds of trees, streams or lakes. It is a place where hopefully we can experience peace and calmness. This is not the wilderness that Jesus was experiencing. His wilderness is often described as a desert with probably only small bushes, if even that and little to no water close by. It also says in our Gospel lesson that Jesus was tested or tempted by satan. It doesn’t sound like peace and calmness to me. Instead, it sounds like constant agitation and a climate that can be difficult to survive in.

So then, how can we relate to this type of wilderness, where there was probably no snow. One of my Old Testament professors at the Moravian Seminary suggested that this wilderness is akin to the world we live in. Not the physical climate necessarily, but the cultural and political climate that we have today.

The division in our country continues to grow. I fear for our country while going through this presidential election. We will have strong people on both sides and many who will be apathetic and think what is the purpose of voting. Voting is important. I would never tell you who to vote for, but only what to consider when you vote.

Gun violence continues and this past week was the one year anniversary of it at MSU. We heard about the gun violence in Kansas City this past week and this past week another college. This has become a political issue and Christians are divided on this and so many things. A threat to our national security was in the news this past week. All of the isms are alive and active.

The world is filled with war, Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Hamas, the bombings in the Red Sea and our retaliation. Our government can’t decide on how to or not to assist. It has become more about politics. Please notice that I have not said democrat or republican. I believe all parties need to put aside something in order to work for the safety and betterment of our country which may then be more in line with God’s law.

I do believe satan is alive and active in all of this unrest. We are being tested. Might God be saying to us how are we going to keep our covenant based on the two great commandments? Now, does this sound like the wilderness that Jesus was experiencing, where there was not much peace or calmness as he was being tested or tempted also not to live according to God’s law, God’s covenant.

What else does Mark say about Jesus’ time in the wilderness? Matthew and Luke elaborate on three specific temptations. Mark says he was with the wild beasts and the angels waited on him.

There are a number of ways that we could look at the wild beasts. One is that they were in harmony with Jesus and maybe even somehow served him. Another way is that Jesus learned to live with wild beasts. In our wilderness there are people that we are required to interact with that we don’t trust or clash with and we need to learn some way of relating to them.

The angels waited on him. We might picture the angels bringing him food and water. They may wash his feet. Whatever ways that we can imagine that could have happened as Mark does not define how they waited on him. Are there not days that we could use someone to wait on us? Frankly even going out to eat, where you don’t have to cook or clean up can be, being waited on. At night, maybe even a libation. I believe if we are ready to receive it God does provide angels waiting on us through others.

This wilderness that we live in also brings us pain and sickness. Most of us have been there or are there and have experienced this. One of our own families, the Kopf family has experienced pain, sickness and death. This is when we can be lifted up on Eagle’s wings and be held in the palm of God’s hand. This comes from the familiar Psalm 91 which will the Psalm for Lent 1 next year.

God can and does all of this, but what can we do here and now in the wilderness? The Psalm for today is one to pray. Some have suggested that it is possible that Jesus prayed this Psalm in the wilderness.

This Psalm is classified as a lament. The Psalm singer begins, To you, O Yahweh, I lift up my soul. Soul is defined as whole being. I am turning my whole being over to you God, is essentially what they are saying. I don’t know where else to turn.

When we can do this we are ready to say, Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Yes this is our verse for Lent. This ‘to know’, is not only knowledge, but it is asking God to teach us to the very core of our being. This relates to the intimacy that I was talking about in last week’s sermon.

It is when we open ourselves up that we are better able to see God’s path for our lives and for our beloved community. Our ability to be taught is that we acknowledge that we do not have all the answers and are open to learning. When we look at our wilderness, our reality is that we are still sinful people, and we are not seeing God’s way clear enough.

Have we figured out yet that if and when we are willing to learn to God’s ways, that it involves change on us as individuals and as a beloved community? When we learn new things about groups of people, our thinking changes as well as our language and actions. In order for growth to happen in any area of our life, first we learn and then we make changes.

Changes have been made here at Fatih and will continue to be made. This only occurs after we learn to know God’s ways. I challenge us during this Lenten season to practice turning our lives over to God in Jesus Christ. Then we are more ready to pray, make me to know your ways, O God. Teach me your paths.

In order to live in our wilderness today this is what we are called to do.

 

Feb 15, 2024

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

Feb 15, 2024

Ash Wednesday 02/14/2024

How can this be, Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday on the same day? The last time it happened was 2018. At first they really don’t seem like they go together. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be affirming love to people on all different levels of relationships. Ash Wednesday seems to be dark and gloomy and dealing true reality that we are sinners. We hear the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return”.

Some people choose not to deal with this day. Not all people come up for ashes. It is looked at by many as the beginning of a dark and dreary season called Lent. Yes, tonight we begin the season of Lent. We do hear the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return”.

Well then, how does this fit into Valentines Day. We think of this day as a day that we share love in many different ways to many different people. There are often cards given, candy, special meals, etc. In elementary schools, boxes are decorated, and valentines and candy are shared with class mates. Some spouses/partners try and think of something special to do or buy for the other. A day of love in which we remind others how much they mean to us.

When it comes to colors for Ash Wednesday we think of black with the ashes. With Valentine’s Day we think of red and hearts. The words we hear, Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” do not sound like “I love you”. I would like to propose that we are talking about different ways of showing and remembering who loves us and whom we love.

Ash Wednesday, the imposition of ashes is a ritual or symbol to remind us that God loves us. We began the service with Psalm 51. David prayed this psalm after Nathan told him a story.

David had raped a commander’s wife and then had the commander sent to the front line where he was killed. Rape and murder, but David did not really see how far off he was from God’s law. Thus, God had Nathan tell David a story so David could get it.

Nathan said that there was a rich man who had many animals and a nice place to live and had what he wanted. There was a poor man who had one lamb, that was more of a pet, barely a roof over his head and little to eat. The rich man had a visitor and told his servants to go and get the poor man’s lamb for a feast.

David said the rich man should be killed for how he treated the poor man. Nathan said, you are the rich man. At that point David realized what he had done that was not right in God’s eyes. David had surrendered his identity as God’s chosen king and betrayed the trust of the nation through rape and murder. He then prayed Psalm 51.

David was sorry for what he had done but was not able to fully comprehend the depth of his sin. He hoped God would forgive him. We hear David praying, Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew in me a right spirit. He was asking God to make him clean again.

Out of love God forgave him. God chose to forgive him. Even though David’s life was never the same. He was not allowed to build the temple. On his deathbed though, he told his son Solomon not to stray from God’s covenant, God’s law.

At the base of all the covenants that God made with God’s people are the two great commandments, You shall the Lord your God, with all you heart soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. We are back to love.

It’s a balancing act to keep our relationship with God going as well as our relationship with others. God says the foundation of these relationships are built on love. Tonight is a night that we are reminded of God’s love for us, regardless.

Once on a church sign was “Forgiveness guaranteed, repentance optional”. At first we might say that no, we must repent in order to receive forgiveness. Think of it this way, forgiveness is always offered, and it is not based anything that we do or say. Forgiveness is freely offered by God in Jesus Christ. Repentance may be a response to love.

We repent and say that we are sorry for things that we do or say that creates brokenness. Even though, just as David did not comprehend the depth of his brokenness, neither can we. We repent out of love for God and each other. As human beings we often have problems forgiving, God does not as God loves us unconditionally.

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday are both about love. Shared loved between us and others and God and us. This love is expressed in different ways. Valentine’s Day may be about cards, candy and many other things. Ash Wednesday is about us remembering how much God loves us unconditionally by sending Jesus and how we then respond to that love.

Could God be sharing a valentine with us tonight through unconditional forgiveness out of love

Feb 11, 2024

This is a special musical presentation of He Knows My Name by the Singing Sinners at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Feb 11, 2024

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 friends. There is pain and hopefully always affirmation in each of our relationships.  A best friend walks with us through the celebratory times and times we would rather not have to walk through. Could Jesus be shining his light through our best friend?

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus takes his disciples up on the mountain. They have no idea why Jesus is taking them up there. Mark doesn’t waste any time and Jesus is transfigured before them. He was lit up along with Moses and Elijah. Moses represent the law and Elijah represents the prophets.

I question how Peter, James, and John knew who Moses and Elijah were, as I am sure they never had met them. Jesus is having a conversation with Moses and Elijah, but Mark doesn’t say what they were talking about. Since Peter could never be quiet, he suggested to Jesus that building three booths would be a good idea in order to prolong this vision. All three disciples were scared, James and John seemed to be too scared to speak.

Jesus did not even answer Peter as a cloud overshadowed them and a voice was heard from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, the beloved, listen to him.” That ended the whole scene in front of them, only Jesus and the disciples were left. It was time to leave and go back down the mountain. Jesus told them to tell no one about what they had just experienced, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. It is thought that people would not understand this scene until Jesus’ resurrection. I’m sure that can be said of the disciples also.

There seems to have been a connection there between Jesus and his disciples. This scene tied together what they would have known from their oral history and writings there may have been at that time. Jesus said he came to fulfill the law and not to abolish it. Jesus came to explain the law once again as people were not getting it. God gave these laws to guide us in how to be in relationship with them and others.

The law has not changed, and this is the original law that God gave to Moses. What came after was made by human beings and often paralyzed the intent of the law first given. Jesus summed up the law into two commandments, You shall love the Lord your God with all of you heart, soul, and all your mind and the second to love your neighbor as yourself.

These commandments help us to be in relationship with God in Jesus Christ and other human beings. Unfortunately, we have one word for love, where in the Greek there are at least three words for love. There is the philios which is the sibling kind of love; eros which is the sexual kind of love; and the agape which is a sacrificial love.

Each one of these types of love can have different levels of intimacy also. Each one takes a little bit different kind of work. This means time, thought and energy. There is only so much time in each day and we are all responsible for something or someone else. Thus, we are compelled to make decisions on how we spend our time, energy and thoughts.

The busier we get the less intimacy there is including with ourselves. Sometimes it is an event, for our disciples in the Gospel lesson it was a mountaintop experience that made them stop. There was a connection there that was not easily understood. It was a place where they were stopped and challenged to reflect on their relationships.

There was a connection that was building a foundation for the disciple’s relationship with Jesus and their neighbors. With Moses and Elijah there it connected the faith that they had grown up with. Then God came in and said Jesus is my Son, listen to Him.

I would gather that the disciples pondered this event for some time. Jesus even told them not to tell the others as they may not understand. That connection between the disciples themselves and then with Jesus was strengthened in that event. Jesus only asked Peter, James, and John to go with him and consider how they were using their time, energy and thinking in their relationships.

Jesus calls each of us into relationship with him. This relationship begins at baptism. We as the beloved community are called to model what it means to be in relationship with God in Jesus Christ and each other. At confirmation we make a public affirmation of this relationship with Jesus.

Every one of us has a different kind of relationship with Jesus. God has made each one of us to think and process differently. Thus, we relate to Jesus in different ways and may use different names to address God in Jesus Christ. In my experience in the Lutheran church, I don’t feel that we have spoken enough about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It really is a balance between a corporate and personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

When I was in fifth grade, I remember watching a Billy Graham Crusade on television. At the end of his preaching when he had the altar call, I knelt down and prayed. There was a connection there that I did not fully understand.

As I have grown in my faith, I now look at that as a time of connecting in that moment. Yes I had been baptized and I was a Christian and on that night I was affirming my personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. Last Sunday we had a healing service and whether you came up for prayer or not, I believe what we were doing in worship is affirming that we believe God in Jesus Christ is a healer and that with the help of the Holy Spirit we are drawn to connect and reconnect with God in Jesus Christ.

Everything that I have described as to what goes into a human relationship is challenged even more with Jesus. With Jesus, we can’t literally see him. Thus in a sense it takes more time, energy and thinking.

Next Sunday we will be doing a few different things. We will be begin reciting the bible verse that I have chosen from our lessons in worship and wrote a newsletter article on. We will do this at the end of the announcements. Also, we will be doing the prayers of intercession a little differently. I will ask that prayer requests that are made on that Sunday are written on a card and the ushers will make sure that I get them.

We will sing a prayer song, I will then pray including these and some of the intercessions that we normally use and at the end we will sing the prayer song again. While I am praying, Bruce will be playing.

I would ask that you use this time to focus on your personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. On Wednesday, we gather together to say that we are nothing without God in Jesus Christ. Lent is a time to step back and examine our relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

God in Jesus Christ calls each one of us by name to foster our relationship with them. Reflect while we are here in worship, maybe the mountaintop, how intimate our relationship with God in Jesus Christ is?         

Feb 4, 2024

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.

Feb 4, 2024

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 been, is and will be alive and active here. The question is what do we expect when we pray for healing?

 

\We can ask God to do anything. Often we would like to determine God’s answer. When it doesn’t come out the way we want it to, we can get angry, disappointed and may even think that God doesn’t care. It is easy to forget that God never promised to fix everything. What God promised is to be with us.

 

\God has not said, only ask for certain things. God does listen to all of our requests. Depending on what shape we are when we ask, will determine the options that we are able to see ho9w God is answering

 

\We can learn early on in our lives that we do not always get what we want. Parents do their best to give their children what they need. What is needed changes definition depending on who is defining it.

 

\As we learn to trust God, we also learn that God gives us what we need and not always what we want. I remember a story about a man who was running an orphanage in England. They sat down to eat breakfast in the morning and had no milk. The man prayed and thanked God for the milk. They finished praying and a milk truck broke down in front of the home and they then had milk.

 

\I believe that God always answer prayers. In the case of the milk, it was what they needed, and the man thanked God before they even had it. The man believed that God would meet their needs. It could have been in a different way. In this case it was what was needed.When we pray for healing and are able to trust God, we are better to able to see the answers. If we are stuck on what we want, it may take us a while to see God’s answer. For me the key is trust In the bible we learn that God gave to people what they needed, not always what they wanted.

 

In our Gospel lesson for today, Simon’s mother in law had a fever and was in bed. They told Jesus at once. I believe that they had an expectation that Jesus could heal her. and he did. Jesus came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Immediately she began to serve them.

 

 This was Jesus’ first healing in the Gospel of Mark. By that evening word had passed and there were many people waiting to be healed. The whole city was gathered around the door. Jesus cured many and cast out demons. This was Jesus proclaiming the kingdom of God.

 

Every one of us has times in our life that we need to be healed. I want to define healing this morning as reconnecting with God in Jesus Christ. As human beings we are broken people. We are not perfect. Thus, we connect, disconnect and then feel the need to reconnect with God.

 

This is not to say that healing could not happen here in this place at this time. Some of you have specific healing requests. Again, part of this healing service is to remind us that God in Jesus Christ walks with us in every part of our lives. When we are able to trust God to give us what we need, a healing has taken place. We have connected with God in Jesus Christ. As I lay hands on you today, may you also hear God saying I love you my child. Rest in that love.

 

Today we are being invited to reconnect with God and receive a healing. God will decide what healing we receive. Our lives become so busy and sometimes exhausting that we are called to stop. God in Jesus Christ is always standing ready to take our hand and lift us up, just as he did with the woman in today’s Gospel lesson.

 

It is in this reconnection, this lifting us up, that brings us new life and vitality and an assurance of God’s love for each one of us.

 

Let us pray: Gracious God, we thank you for always listening and answering our prayers. We desire to connect with at this time and place. May your Spirit help us to trust that you know what we need. Thank you for always walking with us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Jan 28, 2024

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.

Jan 28, 2024

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 freeing feeling. To be able to lead worship with other members of the LGBTQIA+ community is amazing - something I would have never even thought would be possible 10-20 years ago. Yes, we’ve come a long way, but as always, there is still a journey ahead of us.

ReconcilingWorks, the organization that manages the RIC program, always provides resources to guide congregations in their planning of their RIC service. This year's theme is “Roll Down Justice”. What a fitting theme for our congregation here at Faith. Over my time here, I have only seen our love of justice grow. All types of justice - social justice, refugee justice, justice for the hungry, justice for the LGBTQIA+ community, justice for our BIPOC siblings. As we continue on our transformation journey to prepare to complete our ministry site profile and begin to seek out candidates for a pastor, it is important to know who we are, and in our conversations so far, our justice work is always front and center.

So what is justice?  According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary: “the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments” or “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair.” Yawn. While dictionary definitions are accurate, they are often boring. Which is why I love the theme for this Sunday, “Roll Down Justice”.  It has action! “Roll Down”. Which started me thinking more about Justice as not just a noun or a concept or something to strive for; but instead viewing justice as a verb - an action - something to do and get engaged in. Now it is starting to sound exciting!

The theme of justice. Our readings walk us through the What? The How? And the Why? First, in the old testament reading from Amos, we hear what we should be doing. We hear that God doesn’t just want our solemn assemblies, burnt offerings and sacrifice, and general noise making. No, God asks us to “let justice flow like a river, and righteousness flow like an unfailing stream.” (Amos 5:24) God wants justice to flow in God’s creation - never ending - never ceasing. God is asking us to constantly work for and do justice.

This is reiterated in the Psalm today when it says “The works of your hands are faithfulness and justice” (Psalm 111:7). Now this is saying that the works of God’s hands are faithfulness and justice - but who does the work of God’s hands? As the ELCA slogan tells us: “God’s Work. Our Hands.” It is us who are called to carry out the work of faithfulness and justice.

Now we get to the “How?” part.  How can we do this?  A little later I’ll focus more on this, but for now I want to focus on the aspect of the question “How can we do this? What if we get it wrong? What if we mess up? What if we get push back? What if we upset people?” In today’s new testament reading from Romans, we receive reassurance that no matter what happens, God is on our side, “If God is for us, who can be

against us?” and “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble? Calamity? Persecution? Hunger? Nakedness? Danger? Violence?”  This is the good news of Jesus Christ and God - no matter what - God will not leave us, God’s love and forgiveness are given to us already and nothing can take that away. As it says in the final part of today’s reading from Romans: “For I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, neither heights nor depths—nor anything else in all creation—will be able to separate us from the love

of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Savior.”

This is How we can do justice. We are freed from sin by the love and action of Jesus Christ, so we can focus on doing work and following the example of Christ, without worrying if something we do will take the love of God away from us or that we might not “earn” our way into the glorious kin-dom. All that is already done for us.

So now that we know what we should do, “let justice flow like a river,” and how we are freed from sin and worry about earning God’s love and forgiveness, we can look at the “Why?” Why should we care? Why should we do something? Won’t other people do it? Why should I even try, it probably won’t make a difference anyway. As the Bible reminds us over and over, the law or commandments we are told to follow are, as noted in today’s Gospel reading from Luke, “You must love the Great Spirit from deep within, with the strength of your arms, the thoughts of your mind, and the courage of your heart, and you must love your fellow human beings in the same way you love yourselves.”  Or as we typically hear it, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27, NRSVUE) The “Why” is because it is God’s commandment, and in my personal opinion, simply the right thing to do.

To further emphasize the Why - a few other passages come to mind. First from James 2:14-16, from the First Nations translation: “What good is it, my sacred family members, if a man says “I have faith,” but has no deeds to show for it? Can that kind of “faith” set him free and make him whole? If a family member or any human being has no clothes to wear or no food to eat, and you say, “Go in peace, stay warm, and eat well,” but fail to give what is needed, what good have you done?”, Here is the last verse again as we commonly hear it from the NRSVUE, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  Yes, we aren’t saved by our works, but are saved by faith through grace. However, how valuable is that faith if we don’t actively live it in our lives.

Turning to 1 John 3:16-17, again from the First Nations translation, “The Chosen One laid down his life for us. This is how we know what love is. In the same way, we should lay our lives down for each other. If someone who has many possessions sees another in need and shows no pity, how can Creator’s love remain in that person?” If we truly want to feel the life giving love of our Creator, then we must do justice in the world to have it roll down among all God’s creation.

Yes, we at Faith Lutheran, certainly do Justice, it is a constant river of work flowing through our community of faith. From the micro pantries (don’t forget the Culver’s fundraiser tomorrow evening!), to the refugee house - and all the help we give those living there, to climate justice with advocacy, solar panels, and rain gardens, to participating in Pride events, and holding racial justice protests/rallies on our sidewalk, we certainly do a lot of justice work. Reading our annual report is a great reminder of how much we do as a community. Tthis is a good look at who we are.

However, we aren’t just called to do justice work together as a community. We are also called to do justice work in our daily lives outside our community of faith. This is clearly shown in our Gospel reading today, the story of the Good Samaritan. This story is familiar to many but shared today from a different translation, which I love, because it lets me be part of the story in a new way by helping me think about what it means. The way this translation is written, helped me remember that the first two people that passed by were Holy people, people that you would think would do the right thing because they were part of, and leaders of, a community of faith, but no - they are the ones that passed by the injured man. It was a complete outsider, an “other”, a person who “was not a Tribal Member but a mixed blood despised by the tribal people” that stopped to help. This person, who based on society would have every right to ignore the injured man, made justice happen. Not just in some superficial way, but became committed to justice for this one person. As it says in verse 35, “The next day,” the man left with instructions to the keeper of the lodging house to continue to care for them.  Yes “The next day”.  This “other”, the “outsider”, set aside whatever plans they had and spent the night with the injured man taking care of him.

This parable is told to answer the question, “Who are my fellow human beings?” or as also translated, “Who is my neighbor?” This again is a question the transition team, along with the congregation, will be looking at as we work through this transition process. As we look toward where Faith Lutheran will be heading in the coming years, we are reminded of who are are called to be, by also reflecting on the question Jesus asked at the end of the parable, “‘Which one of these three acted as a fellow human being to the man who was attacked by the thieves?’ The scrollkeeper answered, ‘The one who had pity on him.’ ‘Go,’ Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said, ‘and walk in the same way.’”

Yes, we are commanded to “Go and walk in the same way,” and as shown in the parable, this is in our everyday lives in addition to the work we do as a community with Christ.  It is sometimes harder to do justice work in our own lives instead of with a group. However, it is vitally important to do so, and the work comes in many ways. Do you defend people when they aren’t able to? Do you correct people when they are incorrect and thus causing damage to people? Do you write and call your legislative representatives to let them know how you feel on issues - whether or not you know they’ll agree with you? Do you vote for people who prioritize justice in their work and laws they introduce and vote for? Do you actively promote these people to encourage others to join you in your justice work?

There are many ways to work on justice in your own lives, and I personally think a good place to start with any of it, is education. The more you know about the oppressed communities and their history, the better you are able to understand their point of view and know ways to advocate for them without having to constantly be told by them what they need. We work to provide some education here at Faith, but doing your own learning is also important. Read books by authors of a diverse background. If you are on social media and you don’t have any friends or organizations you follow that keep you learning something or challenging your thoughts, I encourage you to find some people or organizations to follow. I am on Facebook a lot, probably more than I should be, and I have a lot of friends and groups that I see posts from, most I just quickly scroll by, but there are a few friends and groups that I will always take the time to read or listen to their post - since I know it will give me information that I’m not hearing elsewhere, and often learn something new.

Just as in the story of the Good Samaritan, he didn’t need to be told, “Hey - there is this person hurting, they need help, go and bandage their wounds, then take them to the local inn and care for them overnight and make sure they are cared for after that.” No, he knew what to do on his own, it was ingrained into his personality - and that is our hope and prayer here as a community of Christ, in that we will continue to learn, both from society and from the word of God, so that justice becomes fully part of who we each individually and as a community are. This way we will be able to “lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty,” so that Justice may continue to “flow like a river, and righteousness flow like an unfailing stream.”  Amen.

Jan 22, 2024

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 to see if they line up with what Jesus’ teachings are as we understand them. If the message does not affirm all of God’s creation, then it is most likely not a message to follow. All Christians will not agree, and this is the tough part.

There are Christians who read and understand the Bible differently than we do. Thus, we are called to continue to study God’s Word. We do have a Bible study every week online and the Holy Spirit is alive and active in it, challenging us in our faith journey.

Our study is during the day; thus, it cuts out people who work during the day. I wonder if when we are not studying the Bible in some way that when we are challenged by other Christians who study the Bible, how will we be able to answer? Everyone is busy and I understand that. There is only so much time and energy that we human beings have.

When the disciples were called to follow Jesus in our Gospel for today, what were they leaving? What were they risking? They were working with their father which meant their business supported families. Their business was tied into the commerce of their area. Not only did their families depend on them, but the whole area relied on their work.

In a sense they were tied into the government which meant their father and others would have to carry on the business without them. The fisherman were leaving a big hole, and their family was probably wondering how they could leave them and their work. The pull to Jesus seemed to be stronger. They heard and felt something that allowed them to take the risk and follow Jesus.

Mark even says that they immediately left. Unless it was an emergency, can you think of anyone or anything that would cause you to answer a call immediately? As Christians, we can look at this and say, God through the Holy Spirit had to have been at work.

In Mark, all that Jesus had said up until this point was “Time’s up, God’s kingdom is here, change your life, and believe in the good news.” Now this is something that they were waiting for. Immediately doesn’t involve much thought. That’s it, times up, here we go.

The fisherman were in a rut. They probably fished almost every day and had family responsibilities. As comfortable as they must have been in knowing what came next for the most part, they stepped right out of it to follow Jesus.

Most of us have called someone or made a request of someone and we often wait for a response. The length of time may depend on whether it is something that they want to do or don’t want to do. It may depend on how busy they are and if they want to change their schedule, let alone change their lives.

I would dare say there are not many requests made of us in life that we would immediately say yes and get up and follow. Especially ones that would upend everything that we have known. Leaving a job that gave some sense of security and family is not something we are often willing to do and the older we get the less we are willing to take that risk.

Jesus was asking these fishermen to step outside of their comfort zones and take a huge risk to follow him. Jesus needed people who were willing to learn in order to teach others. Jesus knew that they would be in for the ride of their lives. Even though it seems that they were following blindly, they sensed that Jesus was hopefully the Messiah who was proclaiming that God’s kingdom is here and that the good news needed to be shared with all people.

Here at Faith Lutheran Church, we have heard the good news in many different forms here in worship. We have it in print. We sing the good news, read it and proclaim it. We do it in deed or action outside of these doors too. But how are we telling or proclaiming the good news outside these doors in words?

God is not calling everyone here to leave your families and your jobs in order to proclaim the good news to all people. I do believe that God in Jesus Christ is calling us to assess how we are doing it, how we are telling others of the good news outside of these doors. As individuals, I have no doubts that we are doing this, but I am talking about in the name of Faith Lutheran Church.

During this time of transition, this is what we are being called to do, to answer the questions: 1) Who are we? 2) Who is our neighbor? 3) How is God calling us to share the good news inside and outside of these doors?

We have our first conversation with the congregation on March 3 where we will be working on answering the question who are we? I am working on getting information for us to answer the question, who is our neighbor? The transition team is working on a creative way in which to answer the question, how is God calling us to share the good news inside and outside of these doors?

When we seek God for the answers to these questions, I believe God will answer them. Most likely, God will be asking us to step out of our comfort zones, some of the ruts that we are in. Jesus calls us every day to share the good news with all people through word and deed.

Jesus is calling each one of us today as individuals and as a community of faith to share the good news. There are many voices in our culture today that share words more of judgement and a lack of inclusion. These are the voices that we are called to counter act with God’s love.

As human beings with a spotty track record with God, we will be tempted to stay in our comfort zones, in our comfortable ruts. Thankfully Jesus continues to call us and promise us that we are not alone in sharing the good news. God sent the Holy Spirit to give us direction in our individual lives and the life of Faith Lutheran Church.

Our country is in a very tenuous place right now. Part of this call will be to listen for the truth. When we answer this call we are saying to God in Jesus Chrit that we are going to listen for his truth. The kingdom is here, but we may need to work harder to find it and hear it. We will probably be called to uncomfortable places to share the good news as we hear it.

Some days we may answer the call immediately other days we may not, but the good news for us is that God continues to love us and forgive us. Jesus says to us today, “follow me and I will make you fish for people” How will you be answering that call and sharing the good news?  

Jan 22, 2024

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.

Jan 14, 2024

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.

                                                                                    All Creation Sings, 1082

I was struck this week as I read and pondered the texts for this Sunday, especially Psalm 139 and John 1, struck by the awareness that God knows, Jesus knows, my every thought.  This was especially evident on Thursday morning when I noted with alarm an email that I had just purchased some software for well over $200.  Included in the notification was a number I could call if this was in error.  That began an hours-long journey through a thicket of multiple layers of fraud, cleverly masked as legitimate enterprises.  I was increasing anxious when one purported helper noted that nearly half of my saving account had through the night been withdrawn.

In the words of Psalm 139 and John 1, the Lord knew my every thought, every emotion; knew my increasing anxiety. 

Enter Mara, our middle child, whose family has been living with us as they, after moving from Virginia, look for a new home.  She sat next to me as we made call after call to finally purge the threat.  I know that I, and I think all humans, can’t think clearly when we are anxious.  Mara was much less anxious: “Dad, this doesn’t feel right.  I think we should hang up on this caller.” 

We learned that hackers are masters of deceit.  We learned that they can mimic credible organizations like Pay Pal and Microsoft and Amazon and even our local bank.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me…you discern my thoughts from far away.  You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways…  

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit

God know us intimately.  Jesus knows me intimately.  This is both disconcerting and immeasurably comforting.

The psalmist writes:  Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.  You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.  For me on Thursday, Mara was a little Christ, God’s knowing what I needed, hemming me in, so to speak, preventing me from falling into the hands of those who would exploit me.  And God was in the credible security folks we finally reached who placed new guard rails to protect me.

God who “fearfully and wonderfully” made each of us, loves us, all of us, quirks and all.  Sins and all. We know this best because, in the words of St. Paul in Romans 5, “God proves his love for us in that while still were sinners Christ died for us.”

Who of us has been and/or is not hard on ourselves?  We may be ashamed of how we look or how we act or how dumb we feel.  We may feel guilt for words spoken in unbridled anger or for our indifference to those neighbors who need our help.  Or like those masters of deceit I experienced on Thursday, we may lie to protect ourselves or to benefit from other’s innocence or naivete.  “While we were still sinners…”   

Here a word about Jesus and Nathanael about whom Jesus said, “truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”  You may remember the story of Jacob and Esau.  Jacob deceived his blind, dying father, Isaac, receiving the blessing of the birthright that rightly belonged to his elder brother Esau.  Just before the brothers were reconciled when Esau forgave Jacob after years of deep hatred and estrangement, God came to Jacob in the night in the form of a man and wrestled with him until daybreak…

When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.  Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.  But Jacob said “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?”  And he said, “Jacob.”  Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.”

When Jesus said to Nathanael, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you,” he saw not just his physical body but, I think, also his heart.  Which led Nathanael to proclaim, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!”  When Nathanael said to Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Jesus knew his thoughts, his skepticism, knew he was an Israelite, one who struggled with God and humans with perseverance and honesty.  “Truly,” said Jesus, “an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”

I so love these texts for today.  I love that God loves us so much that in the Son God has taken into Godself all of our darkness, all of our hatred and anger, and died on our behalf as a criminal.  I love that the LORD of Psalm 139 and the Jesus of John 1, one and the same, knows my every thought, my every emotion, my every word.  And in the words of Professor Craig Nessan, whom I heard in a talk at Bethlehem Lutheran Friday afternoon:  through Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, God enables us to transmute the energy of our darkness, our hatred and anger, our alienation from one another into words and acts of mercy and forgiveness, of kindness and generosity.

I love that Jesus comes very near to us, certainly through the bread and fruit of the vine in Holy Communion, but also through those sisters and brothers sitting near to us this morning, whether physically or virtually.  I love that Jesus was sitting with me on Thursday in the wisdom of Mara.

The challenge for all of us this afternoon and tomorrow and beyond is to remember and trust that the Son of God and King of Israel is hemming us in, behind and before, in every moment of our lives.

God, be the love to search and keep me; God, be the prayer to move my voice; God, be the strength to now uphold me; O Christ, surround me; O Christ, surround me.  Walking behind to hem my journey, going ahead to light my way, and from beneath, above, and all ways; O Christ, surround me; O Christ, surround me.  Christ in the eyes of all who see me, Christ in the ears that hear my voice, Christ in the hearts of all who know me; O Christ, surround me; O Christ, surround me.  

                                                                        All Creation Sings, 1084, vss. 1, 4 and 5

Amen.  

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