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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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Now displaying: July, 2017
Jul 23, 2017

This is a special musical performance by Diane Hill of There is a Balm In Gilead by Hayes at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Jul 23, 2017

I have always loved the music of folk musician and activist Pete Seeger.  He was a prolific song writer.  In his music, we gain insight into the many causes he supported, such as international disarmament, civil rights and care of the environment.  There is an authenticity and honesty present in his work.  As he observed culture and life he responded to what was happening in our lives and in the world by infusing his songs with cries for justice.  Voicing his passion for people’s rights through the music he wrote, he actively sought justice for our African American brothers and sisters.  In fact, Seeger was the musician most responsible for popularizing the spiritual We Shall Overcome which became the anthem of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.  Seeger was also very aware of the fact that good and bad exist in tandem.  As he reflected upon American music, one of his statements is very profound in light of today’s gospel reading.  He said, “The good and bad are all tangled up together.  American popular music is loved around the world because of its African rhythm.  But that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for slavery.”

Now, to be sure, there was and is absolutely nothing that ever validates or justifies slavery in our past history as a nation, or at any other time in the history of the world, including this present time.  And, we need to continue addressing the racism that is still so present in our culture, racism that is rooted in the sin of slavery and has become systemic in this nation.  In fact, Seeger would have been the first person to make that very clear.  But, he was able to see the gift African American people have given the world, contributing to American culture, even though they came to this country through the evils of slavery.  Seeger could keenly see that the good and bad in life are all tangled up together.

This is something Jesus clearly acknowledges in today’s gospel reading.  The good and the bad are all tangled up together.  Today, Jesus is telling yet one more story as he tries to describe the kingdom of heaven.  He compares the kingdom to someone who went out and sowed good seed in his field.  Then, that night, when the hired help were sleeping, an enemy – a word that would be better translated as “hostile human being” – came and sowed weeds among the wheat.  This hostile human being sowed weeds, which are often called tares or bearded darnel.  Truthfully, it is a “devil of a weed.”  In its early stages, it actually looks like wheat.  But, as its roots surround the roots of the good plants, it sucks up not only the precious nutrients in the soil but also the scarce amount of water.  It becomes virtually impossible to get it out without ruining the good plant.  This bearded darnel is not even discernible from wheat until the grain begins to form.  So, it was only after the plants grew up and began to bear fruit that the weeds seemed to appear. 

Like Jesus’ words to us last week, he is again using an example that is familiar to the people as he makes a point about the kingdom of heaven.  As his story continues, when the crop finally started to mature, it became very obvious that the toxic weed had been sown among the wheat.  The servants in the story wanted to pull up these weeds.  But, the wise farmer emphatically said: "No, if you gather up the weeds you will uproot the wheat along with them.  Let them both grow together until harvest time. Then we will separate the tares from the wheat." 

Jesus acknowledges the presence of evil and its malicious nature.  Yet, he calls for restraint because one cannot always be sure about these plants.  What I find so interesting about the statement “let them both grow together,” is the Greek word that has been translated as “let.”  This Greek word is “aphete” and, in the Bible it is most frequently translated as “forgive.”  So, one could say the sentence is “forgive and let the tares grow with the wheat until the harvest.”  Wow!  Again, we have a parable that is all about the grace we find within the reign of God. 

As human beings, we all have weed aspects within us.  As a church, we exist as weed infested communities.  We are tangles of wheat and weeds together, good and bad wrapped up together.  The fact of the matter is that both grow within each one of us.  I like the way theologian, John Petty, describes our weed side and the coming harvest.  He writes:

We all have our “weed side” – that part of us which may look good, but doesn’t produce fruit.  This part will be burned away, leaving only that which is built on Christ.  Don’t worry.  In God’s time of harvest, this will be seen and experienced as a good thing.  After all, the one who judges us – the one who sends the purifying fire – is really the one who loves us the most.  Our propensity to judge others will be burned away.  Our sucking up to hierarchical authority will be burned away.  Our trying to see ourselves as better than others will be burned away.  Our moralistic fervor will be burned away.  Our self-righteous attempt at self-inflation will be burned away.  Praise God!

 

The blatant truth for each one of us is that we are imperfect people and we live in an imperfect world where evil is inevitably part of life.  And, it is not always easy to distinguish the good from the bad.  There are problems within us and around us that lie beyond our ability and power to prevent, correct or heal.  But, the God who is seen in this parable is one of infinite patience and restraint.  In this parable about a God of patience and grace, we find an intentional ambiguity that is holy as God allows the good to grow up with the bad.  Theologian, Theodore Wardlaw, describes this place of holy ambiguity by saying:

God creates space that frees us to get on with the crucial business of loving, or at least living with each other.  Often, in the space created by such patience, it is not just the others, but we ourselves, who are welcomed into a larger reality.  This is the sense in which we are ‘reborn’ not just once, but over and over and over again. 

 

Every one of us, every little child and every adult, lives life tangled and ensnared within a plethora of self-justifying impulses.  We face self-love that has run amuck.   We seem to trust in things that are not worthy of our trust.  This is part of our humanity, part of life.  This is what we who are Christians call “sin.”  And, in God’s economy of grace, God’s constant surprise for us is that this God even uses our brokenness to bring forth beauty in God’s kingdom.  God even comes to us through the weeds of our lives, our own brokenness.  God mysteriously and graciously comes to us disguised as our life, and patiently transforms us into new beings.  God’s gracious, patient love for each one of us, let alone the entire cosmos, is so great that God even takes the horror and evil of a cross and transforms that experience to show God’s deep love for our broken world.

While we live in a world where seeds of hatred and violence continue to be sown, Jesus’ words today remind us that God is still in charge.  Yes, the good and the bad are all tangled up together, even within our very selves.  We live as “saint and sinner,” totally forgiven and totally in need of forgiveness.  But, we have been freed from slavery to sin.  We have been freed to be truly human – freed to truly love with a love that comes from God.  We have been named and claimed by this God of patience and grace who will never let us go.  Thanks be to God!

Jul 16, 2017

This is a special musical performance by Christopher Lewis as he sings God and God Alone by McHugh today at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Jul 16, 2017

I love having an herb garden in the summer so that I can just go out and pick the herbs I need for any recipe.  And, I love that time in Spring when it is warm enough to finally plant my herbs.  Now, for any of you who garden, you know there are some necessary steps that must be taken before planting.  The ground must be prepared.  The soil must be mixed with certain kinds of nutrients.  Then, you carefully dig the holes so you can place plants exactly where you want them.  There is a process one must go through if you want a successful garden, and preparing the soil is part of the process and a necessary first step.

Well, that first important step apparently was not on the farmer’s mind in the story Jesus shares with us today.  Today, we hear Jesus telling the crowd a parable about a farmer who has gone out to sow seed.  And, I have to say, this farmer seems quite irresponsible in the way he goes about planting his field.  He has a very unusual process for planting, something that makes no sense to our 21st century way of thinking.  Truthfully, he seems reckless, careless, extravagant and wasteful as he throws seed everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places.  It would appear he simply does not know what he is doing.  After all, we know farmers and gardeners plan ahead.  They plow the field and prepare the soil so it has just the right pH balance.  Then, they inject the seed, irrigate the soil and fertilize.  They do not just randomly throw seed around and let it fall wherever!

Well, in Jesus’ time, randomly throwing seeds on the ground as this strange farmer does was not unusual.  Actually, Jesus’ account of the farmer’s process is quite realistic.  Unlike modern farmers, first-century farmers would cast seed around all over the place and then plow.  With this approach, something that seems crazy to us, it is not surprising that some seed would fall on hard soil, other seed on rocky ground, and yet others in the thorns and weeds.  This was just the reality of the situation.  Everyone knew this and understood the process.  So, as Jesus begins to tell the story, I can imagine people in the crowd standing there nodding their heads in agreement as Jesus talks about the way the farmer plants seed. 

Jesus was taking an example from everyday life, an example of something everyone understood, and he turned it into a teaching moment about his mission and message.  In the analogy he uses, he is describing the situation he has been facing in his ministry.  Jesus has been teaching and proclaiming the good news that the Kingdom of God has broken into this world and is growing.  In all of his parables, he is describing that kingdom which is already breaking in upon us, but not yet fully here.  However, most of the time the people just do not get it.  If you remember last week’s gospel, we heard that Jesus had been misunderstood.  In the gospel narrative preceding today’s reading, Jesus had faced opposition.  His message seemed to be falling on rocky ground.  Furthermore, the Pharisees are always wanting to choke out his message.  And, we will find that in the passages following today’s reading, his message falls on the hard soil of his hometown folks and they will reject him.  Jesus’ metaphor is very much about his message and what is happening in his present life.

I think for those of us who have heard the Parable of the Sower so many times, it is very familiar and we tend to think it is about us – about the kind of soil within our hearts as we hear the message of good news.  In fact, in the second part of today’s reading we hear Jesus explain the parable’s meaning, indicating the story is about our response to the word of God which has been sown among us.  This certainly is one interpretation that has been used and it can be helpful.  But, the explanation of the parable as printed in Matthew was not part of the original parable.  Those verses were added at a later point in time by the gospel writer or the early church.  And, while they do offer a valid and helpful interpretation of the story, the truth is this is not a story about us.  It is not a story about what kind of soil we have within our hearts.  No, it is a story that is all about Jesus.  It is a story that is all about God – all about an amazing God who is extravagant and wasteful in showing love to a broken world, a God who showers the entire world with abundant, amazing grace.

God is this crazy farmer who sows seeds of forgiveness and love in all kinds of places, even the most unlikely of places.  God is this strange, wasteful farmer who nurtures those seeds wherever they fall by showering them and drenching them in abundant grace.  God is this whacky farmer who blesses those seeds as they grow with the vibrant sunshine of unconditional love and mercy.  You see, our God is one who throws seed out, not only on good soil where hearts are ready to be open to the Word.  This God wastefully throws seeds of love and grace out on rocky ground where hearts are hard and the seed cannot easily take root, on weed infested ground where hearts are filled with hate and anger, and on sandy ground where the soil of people’s hearts just keeps shifting around.  And, the most amazing thing happens – some of this seed takes root and produces a great harvest.  Yes, some of this seed produces bushels of abundance.  Jesus ends the parable with these words, “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  Let anyone with ears listen!” 

Commentator, Talitha Arnold, says, “Maybe [this parable] should be called the Hundredfold Harvest.  Even if the harvest were only thirtyfold, this story would end with a miracle.  Sevenfold meant a good year for a farmer, and tenfold meant true abundance.  Thirtyfold would feed a village for a year and a hundredfold would let the farmer retire to a villa by the Sea of Galilee.” (Talitha Arnold)

This parable of Jesus ends with a miracle when Jesus talks about a hundredfold harvest.  It is a story filled with promise.  It is all about the abundance we find as children of God, the abundance of a God of love who relentlessly and indiscriminately sows seeds in the most unlikely places as if it were all potentially good soil.  This God of abundance even sows seed in the messiness of our own hearts.  And, in the person of Jesus Christ, this sowing God of abundance gets down and dirty, working the ground, the soil of our being in the messed-up-ness of our lives.  Oh yes, this is a God who is so extravagant and wasteful God gets down and dirty to the point of dying on a cross because of abundant love for this world.  And, it is that abundant love and life we are called to share as we deeply connect with others and allow God to use us to wildly sow seeds of forgiveness, grace and love into the lives of others. 

 

Jul 9, 2017

I must admit something to all of you.  I have a hearing problem.  It is an issue I really don’t want to face, but I am going to have to deal with it.  I know I must address it because, at times, I misunderstand what people are saying.  At times, I misunderstand what my husband says, what Dorothy says, and probably what some of you say if you speak rather softly.  And, if I misunderstand you at times, I am sorry. 

Anyway, my point in telling you this today is not so much about my hearing issue as it is about misunderstanding.  I think for all of us, the reality is that at some point in time we have been misunderstood or, we have misunderstood someone else.  As David Lose says, “To be…is to be misunderstood.” 

In today’s gospel reading we hear Jesus share this little parable about children playing in the market place, and they are misunderstood.  The children play a glad, happy song for their friends, but no one dances.  Then, they play a sad, mournful dirge, but no one mourns or weeps.  Jesus goes on to say, the children were no better understood than John the Baptist or he, himself. 

Jesus is addressing the failure of society as a whole to understand and respond to the messages he and John had proclaimed.  Their messages had been extremely clear.  However, society – the entire generation – was unfaithful and fickle.  The people had been given every opportunity to hear, but they refused.  They had heard from both John and Jesus and they could not decide what they wanted.

Now, John and Jesus could not have been more opposite in style.  John appeared on the scene as this eccentric, sober, teetotaler who ate bugs and honey for lunch, wore scratchy clothing made from animal hair, and often fasted.  He came addressing his listeners as a “brood of vipers,” proclaiming a message that was all about austere repentance.  But, the people complained.  Some even labeled him as demon possessed.  Jesus, on the other hand, invaded the scene as this welcoming character who feasted, ate, drank and partied with all sorts of people.  He came proclaiming the good news of a God of love, a God of disturbing, startling, astonishing inclusiveness.  He came healing the sick and performing all sorts of miracles.  But, the people dismissed him.  Some even called him a glutton and a drunkard.  Listening to other voices in their culture, the whole generation, a whole people, did not understand the song of these two very different men.  Listening to other voices around them, they did not know when to dance and when to mourn. Commentator, Elizabeth Johnson, puts it this way:

This generation finds reason to take offense at both John and Jesus and thus evade the call of both. They are like children in the marketplace who cannot decide whether they want to play wedding games or funeral games and end up playing neither. 

 

Yes, John and Jesus were misunderstood, and their call to living a life that truly mattered was evaded.

I have to wonder about the ways we fail to understand Jesus, the ways we fail to understand the reasons for dancing and the reasons for mourning.  How deeply are we lulled by the songs of our culture: songs of individualism, success, money, power, control, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and a belief that strength, might and determination solve all problems?  How often are we lulled by power hungry voices in our culture telling us to believe that we do not need to care for the most vulnerable in our midst because it costs money, so we cast the least of these aside even though that might mean they go homeless, without health care and hungry while trying to find a way.  How often are we lulled by narcissistic, self-focused voices in our culture, telling us it is ok to exclude and not welcome the other, cutting others out of the picture, whether it be globally, nationally, within our communities, even within our very own families?  How often do we miss the moments in life that really matter?  And, how often do we dance when we ought to mourn for a world whose burden is heavy?  How often do we dance when we should weep for so many people who need rest?

Well, Jesus turns away from the gathered crowd and offers a prayer that is rather jarring to our success oriented, power and control focused, wisdom seeking, intellect pursuing psyche.  And, we discover that in God’s realm, all those things that attract our attention, those things that drive our behavior and become the attributes we consider important, are barely noticed.  In fact, they are dismissed.  What is even more interesting is that Jesus’ words indicate the blessings of God are hidden from the wise, hidden from the intelligent and sophisticated.  Instead, the infants of this world, those who are innocent and naïve, those who are vulnerable, are the ones who best understand the ways of God. 

You see, only the vulnerable are able to identify their deep need.  And, when we are vulnerable enough to identify this need, the need for God’s presence in life, it also means something must die and we will be changed.  Oh, how we tend to fear that because it means facing our own messed-up-ness, letting go of our issues and facing loss.  Yet, the truth of the matter is that, in doing so, we will be made new!

Here’s the difficult truth about life in Christ. You cannot enter into it and expect to be unchanged. Which means a precondition of receiving Jesus – perhaps the only one! – is to recognize your need for Jesus. Forgiveness, when you think about it, is meaningful only to those who have sinned, grace avails only those who are broken, and the promise of life abundant and eternal is only attractive to those who know they are dying……Jesus knows that this kind of message – a message that is good news only to those who can identify their need – will be of little appeal to the self-made man or woman of the first or twenty-first centuries. But it is good news – unbelievably good news – to those who know their brokenness, can admit their need, and who turn to God in Jesus to be known, understood, and accepted. (Blog: David Lose In the Meantime)

 

          So, at a time when we as a nation have just celebrated our strength, our might and power – can we not only give thanks for all that is good in our lives and in our country?  But, can we also face our deep brokenness and messed-up-ness as individuals, as families, as communities, as a nation, as a world, and lay that before God?  In the person of Jesus, God is calling us to come unto him.  In the person of Jesus, we discover God in Christ not only enters into a messed-up world that is preoccupied with power and control, but is willing to be misunderstood and become vulnerable, even to the point of death on a cross, all because of God’s deep love for a hurting world.

          In Christ, we are called to turn again to the God who walks with us in our struggles, knows our pain and is present to us in our deepest despair.  We are called to turn again to the One who calls out to us through Jesus saying, “Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  (from Eugene Petersen’s The Message)

          These are words that can touch the deepest part of our being.  And, when that happens, we truly begin to understand, not misunderstand.  We discover that we are truly known, accepted, and understood by a God of love, and this God will lead us into wholeness and life that truly matters.

Jul 4, 2017

An anonymous person once said, “If you celebrate Independence Day on just one day of the year, it goes on to show that you are not really free.  Learn to celebrate your freedom every day.”  I find this quote very interesting because it talks about our sense and understanding of not only our nation’s independence, but also our understanding of personal freedom or personal independence.  And, it alludes to the fact that in many ways we are not really free.  On this weekend when we celebrate our independence as a nation, we also find ourselves living in an age when personal independence and perceived personal freedoms have become idols.  And, any time we worship an idol we are not really free.  So, I find it fascinating that on this day we hear the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, words that are both offensive and necessary. 

It is true that, when Paul uses the word “slavery,” his understanding of this word was considerably different than ours.  He lived in an age when the relationship between slave and master needed no explanation.  The Greco-Roman world assumed a slave economy in which most people served those placed above them.  Slavery was understood and accepted by all.  However, in our day, “slavery” brings to mind 300 years of social evil.  We hear the word “slavery” and are reminded of 300 years of a sinful practice that has not only adversely shaped our nation but created a rupture so great it continues to shape us as we face the many aspects of racism we find in contemporary culture.  As we look at Paul’s message, we need to get beyond the word “slavery” to understand he is talking about the idea of ultimate allegiance, loyalty, obedience, and service.   

To be a slave as Paul understands it is to surrender your life to the control of another.  And, understanding slavery in this way, we find that we are all slaves of one sort or another.  While we are a people who are heavily invested in the illusion that we think for ourselves, choose for ourselves and do for ourselves, the reality is there are so many things that control our lives.  Money, personal wealth, Wall Street, success, fashion, sports, physical fitness, family, keeping up with the Jones’ (whomever they may be), the way we spend our leisure time, addictions of all kinds, even our sense of patriotism – the list goes on and on and on.  All we need do is pay attention to what occupies our thoughts and how we spend our time and money and we will discover that which truly enslaves us.  Not only are we enslaved to many of these things and aspects of life, we have built large cathedrals and shrines where we can worship these idols – note our big sports facilities and the shopping malls one can find in virtually any community.  We are all serving something or someone, and today’s words from St. Paul invite us to ask the question, “Whom or what do you serve?”

The apostle Paul sees only two possible answers, two possible masters:  righteousness or everything else.  Paul says the only two possible masters are God or sin.  Quite honestly, Paul sees nothing wrong in having a master because he knows everyone has one, but who or what is that master?   It is whom you serve that makes all the difference.  And, that difference comes when we place our ultimate allegiance, loyalty, obedience, and service in and to God.  Quite frankly, our loyalties to anything other than God enslave us in sin.  It is only by turning around, repenting, and placing our loyalty in God that we begin to understand what freedom really is about.  Only then are we liberated to truly live. 

We are all under sin's domination.  But for those baptized into Christ's life, death and resurrection, the power of sin has been destroyed. We have been freed from sin's power.  And the greater power that has broken sin's shackles from our lives is God's grace.  Through God's unmitigated, unmerited and unrelenting grace, we have been set free from the power of sin. This is not a grace that simply enables us to feel better about ourselves.  This is not a grace that simply enables us to live a life after death.  No!  This is a grace that pursues us with God's love. This is a grace that invades our lives and showers us with God's mercy. This is a grace that transforms us and declares us righteous before God. This is a grace that opens for us the way that leads to a new way of being – the way of God's life, the way of eternal life, the way of life that truly matters right here and right now.

It is grace alone that breaks the chains of sin and safely holds us in the shackles of God's righteousness. Freed from the bonds of sin, we are bound irrevocably to God. Paul exclaims, "Thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart...having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness."  And, bound to God, we are engaged in the mission of God in the world.  Having been freed from sin we are freed for living into God's mission which begins now!  God's mission is here! God's mission is the healing of the world, the wholeness of humanity and the renewal of creation. We all get to join that mission, because we have been drafted and enrolled by God's grace.

Friends and followers of Jesus, we have been captured by Grace and bound to God's righteousness!   Paul tells us we are now living under grace and not under the law.  And, through baptism into Christ, God has created the possibility of our doing the right thing, but every Christian must choose whether or not he or she we will do it.  We can make choices and decisions to intentionally live God’s grace because we have been freed from the entanglements of the world, the entanglements of self, the entanglements of culture, the entanglements of anything that would hold us captive.  And, we have been freed to serve, not because we have to but because we can, because love flows into love and grace begets grace. 

Having been baptized into Christ our ultimate allegiance, loyalty, obedience, and service are now found in God who has made us truly freeThat is the freedom we are joyfully called to celebrate every day.   That is the freedom we are called to live into as we engage in God’s mission in this world.

Jul 4, 2017

This is a special music performance of We're a Fellowship of Believers at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, MIchigan

Jul 4, 2017

This is a special musical performance of He Who Began a Good Work in You at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

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