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

Luke 10:25-37; RIC Sunday; January 28, 2024

Additional texts: Amos 5:21-24; Romans 8:31-39

Amos and Romans texts from The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation, ©2007 Future Church

Gospel from First Nations Version, ©2021 by Rain Ministries Inc.

Rich Weingartner

Grace to you and peace from God our parent, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Welcome to RIC (Reconciling in Christ) Sunday. As noted in your bulletin - this is a Sunday where we, and hundreds of other RIC congregations across the nation celebrate, remember, and rededicate themselves to the commitments they made when they became RIC. Those commitments are outlined in our welcome statement on the front of your bulletin. More information about RIC, a little history, and the reason we keep focusing on RIC will be in your February newsletter. On a personal note, this congregation and our RIC status and journey, have been a true blessing for me. To be able to fully be myself in the presence of God and this community is such a 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.

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?  

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

Second Sunday after Epiphany

January 14, 2024

Faith, Okemos

I Samuel 3:1-20, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, I Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51

O God, you search me and you know me.  All my thoughts lie open to your gaze.  When I walk or lie down you are before me; ever the maker and keeper of my days.

You know my resting and my rising.  You discern my purpose from afar, and with love everlasting you besiege me; in ev’ry moment of life or death you are.

Before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you have known its meaning through and through.  You are with me beyond my understanding; God of my present, my past, and future, too.

Although your Spirit is upon me, still I search for shelter from your light.  There is nowhere on earth I can escape you; even the darkness is radiant in your sight.

For you created me and shaped me, gave me life within my mother’s womb.  For the wonder of who I am, I praise you; safe in your hands, all creation is made new.

                                                                                    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.  

The Baptism of our Lord – 01/07/2024

          We make decisions every day of how close we want to get to someone, physically and emotionally. How much do we want to know about another person’s business? What will be expected with having this information?

          There are times that we are drawn in and find ourselves entangled and wonder how we got there. There are other times, especially if we can learn from those entanglements that we then draw boundary lines and filter or maybe even choose not to associate with a person.

          It is about taking care of ourselves. Caretakers often have a problem with getting taken advantage of. We can easily forget that God did not say that we are responsible to take care of everyone’s needs. Healthy relationships involve people who are able to have a give and take which involves constant communication.

          Today we are challenged to look at our relationship with God. As Lutherans we believe that this can happen at infant baptism. Although we also believe that one can have a relationship with God without being baptized. Baptism is a public recognition that we are God’s child and we are saying out loud.

          As infants, we rely on others to teach us what it means to be a child of God. As adults, if we have not been baptized as infants, we come to a place where we are ready to publicly affirm that we are a child of God and to state this out loud. Baptism is about relationships with God in Jesus Christ and each other.

          God created us to be in relationships with God and each other. Baptism states this publicly. Everyone is a child of God, but baptism says it out loud. It is a means of grace. God claims us as God’s own and baptism affirms this claim.

          Through baptism God offers us forgiveness, salvation and new life as gifts. It is how God says I love you, even though we don’t deserve it. This is where grace comes in. Through baptism we receive God’s grace, God’s love.

          If we are saying out loud that we are God’s child and we are still infants, it is done for us. At confirmation and hopefully many other times, we affirm that we are God’s child. But what does that mean?

          One thing it means is that we are in a relationship with God in Jesus Christ and God has a lot to say about how we live our lives. At times it is hard to hear God’s voice because we get in the way with what we want. Also, we allow ourselves to get caught up with people and things that block out our hearing of God’s voice.

          I am here to remind us that God will not stay away from us. God will continue to speak to us even when we are choosing not to hear. In our Gospel lesson for today we hear that the heavens were torn apart symbolizing that God had, and was coming to earth. The Spirit descended like a dove on Jesus and God said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

I added the first four verses of the Gospel of Mark to our Gospel lesson to remind us that this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This good news is what we are called to share with others as children of God, that we are God’s child and so are they.  John the Baptist prepared the people for Jesus’ baptism. First of all, to help them understand that his baptism was one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and that Jesus would be baptizing with the Holy Spirit. Second that once they were baptized by Jesus that they would be believers in Jesus and saying this out loud.

          It is quite interesting that Mark says that the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to John the Baptist. They were going out to be baptized in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. This sounds like a lot of people. John was telling them what they were doing, but there was no way that they could fully understand it at that time.

          John the Baptist says to the people that he had baptized them with water for the forgiveness of sins, but Jesus will baptize them with the Holy Spirit. John doesn’t say maybe, but will. I wonder if the people may have sensed that Jesus was the Messiah and they were ready to say out loud that they were God’s children, followers of Jesus Christ.

          This is the beginning of the Good News, but we know as we continue to hear about Jesus encounter’s with people and church and governmental leaders, that it did not all seem like good news. There may have been times that the people did not want to hear what Jesus had to say. It may have gone against their culture, against what many were doing. They may have wanted to distance themselves from Jesus, from God’s voice. Times where they didn’t want to say out loud that they were God’s child, followers of Jesus.

          I do not believe that we are any different from the followers of Jesus day. Saying out loud that we are God’s child, followers of Jesus sometimes goes against the grain of our society, even other denominations. The more that we allow God’s voice to be heard in our lives, the more changes that we will be called to make. We make decisions of how close we choose to get to God in Jesus Christ, just as we do with others.

          Thus, I wonder if there are times we would like God to stay away or at least be quiet. That may sound harsh, but is it any different with fellow human beings at times. Sometimes there are things that we need to do and or say that are not easy.

          I believe all of us know how to be deaf and blind when we come upon things that we do not want to deal with. The loving thing about God is that God in Jesus Christ walks with us and sometimes carries us through the tough times. Could it be that when we realize this that we are ready to say out loud again that we are God’s child?

          As children of God sometimes we are called to engage with people, other children of God. Sometimes it gets messy. As we move forward in our transition, there will be changes that are made.

          God says to us, I’m here to walk with you, are you willing to hear my voice and follow my direction? God’s voice will come through different people and occurrences. I will be the one asking the questions and will encourage you to ask questions also.

          God calls and invites us into God’s beloved community, and the world has changed around us. Many churches are struggling to make ends meet and lack volunteers. Does that sound a little familiar? God is calling us to something new.

          Are we willing to trust God? Are we willing to listen for, and to God’s voice?

Are we willing to say out loud that we are Children of God?

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