Arise, O Church Arise, A Special music performance by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, MI
If you have not yet heard, we are nearing the end of a brutal and bitter election season. And, we are daily bombarded with words about truth and freedom. However, on this Reformation Sunday, the good news that is before us is about a truth and freedom that are of ultimate concern, a truth and freedom that will change your life. Jesus is saying to each of us, “[Come, let go of your issues and get to know me. Live in my love and live in my Word.] If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you….[because] if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.”
A wonderful performance by the Faith Lutheran Church Joyful Noise Choir, a group of children under age 16 that share their musical gifts with all of us today!
We will never be free until we are dead to the whole business of justifying ourselves. And, the really good news is that Jesus came to raise the dead! Our situation is not hopeless because God is the master of impossible situations. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are able to discover that we are freed from the burden of self-justification. We are recipients of an amazing gift – God’s all-encompassing grace. And that grace enables us to let go of self and go forth to love and care for all those around us.
Special music by the Faith Lutheran Chorale of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
As we hear and try to understand the parable Jesus tells us today, just maybe the really good news for all of us is that God is the one who is like that widow – unrelenting, persistent, assertive – like a dog on a bone. God is the one who does not and will never give up. God has not, does not, and will not ever give up on us, even when we have acted as though we "neither feared God nor had respect for people." Just maybe, the real message in this short little story is that, because of God’s great love for us, God became vulnerable like that poor widow, even to the point of being nailed to the cross like a common criminal. And, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s reign has broken into this world and continues to break into our world, bringing forth justice for all people. Now that is the kind of good news worth sharing. That is the kind of message for which each of us can be like a dog on a bone!
The Faith Lutheran Chorale shared a musical presentation of I Will Awaken The Dawn
Today at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, MI, Jack Dingledine shared a stewardship temple talk about being good stewards for the Earth.
The healthiest people I know are those whose lives are not lived as the self-made man or woman, living within their protective boundaries. The healthiest people I know are those whose very lives express deep gratitude as they have reached across boundaries to enrich and embrace others and be embraced by others. The healthiest people I know are those who know that to be truly well requires the embrace of the alien grace of Christ’s daring love, the embrace of the God who crosses all boundaries to love us where we are and as we are and make us God’s own.