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

Faith Lutheran Church, Okemos, MI
  • 4.0 (4)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Daily

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

  1. 4d ago

    Se tu m'ami, se sospiri

    Today, we had a special musical performance of Se tu m'ami, se sospiri by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, arr Theodore Baker and sun by soloist Cody Boyan, and a piano solo from Owen Thompson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. Published Under License From Essential Music Publishing, LLC

  2. 4d ago

    Sermon - 9-6-26

    Year A – Creation in Christ – September 6, 2026 Pastor Megan Floyd               Genesis 1:1-2:4a               Psalm 148               Acts 17:22a, 24-28               John 1:1-5   Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, from the Holy Spirit, who gives life to all creation, and from Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made. Amen. *** Today is a little unusual… because today, we are celebrating something that is both very old… and very new. We are celebrating the Feast of Creation in Christ… officially, it lands on September 1, but we observe it in worship on the first Sunday following that day. It is very old… because Christians have been praying about creation on this day for centuries. And very new… because this is the first year we are celebrating it as a new festival in the Revised Common Lectionary… which is the three-year cycle of scripture readings and celebrations that guide our church calendar. So… what exactly are we doing? Where did this come from? …And why are we suddenly celebrating the Feast of Creation in Christ? Well… I'm so glad you asked! …The story begins in the Eastern Orthodox Church. For centuries, September 1 has carried a particular significance in the Byzantine Christian tradition. Since at least the seventh century, it has symbolized the beginning of creation… and it became the opening of the Byzantine liturgical year. So… the beginning of the church year was connected with the beginning of God's creative work. "In the beginning…" Genesis begins that way… and John begins his Gospel the same way. … "In the beginning was the Word…" And so, in 1989, Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios of Constantinople made an extraordinary invitation. He invited the entire Christian world to come together every September 1 in prayer… to give thanks to God for the gift of creation… and to pray for its protection and salvation. And something began to happen. Churches around the world began taking up that invitation. Christians from different traditions began praying for creation together. And eventually, September 1 became associated not only with an ancient Orthodox observance, but with a growing ecumenical movement of Christians caring for creation and giving thanks to the Creator. Then, in recent years, Christians from different traditions began asking a question: Could this ancient Eastern Christian observance become something the whole church could share? So… Christians began meeting together. Orthodox Christians… Lutherans… Catholics… Anglicans… Methodists… Reformed Christians… and Christians from many other traditions. Thirteen Christian world communions and ecumenical bodies participated in the conversations. And some of those conversations happened in Assisi… the hometown of St. Francis… a place already deeply associated with Christian love for creation. …This became known as the Assisi Process. They prayed… listened… and studied. And they asked a theological question that is really at the heart of what we're doing today: What does creation have to do with Jesus Christ? And the answer is… everything. …But this is not simply a Christian version of Earth Day. …This feast is bigger than all of that. …This is a feast of Christ. That's why the official name is not simply "Creation." It is… "Creation in Christ." When we say "Creation in Christ," We are saying that the one we meet in Jesus Christ is not a stranger to creation. …Christ does not arrive late in the story. Jesus doesn't suddenly appear in Bethlehem and begin God's work of salvation. John tells us: "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. …And all things came into being through him." All things. …Before Bethlehem… before the manger… before the cross and the empty tomb… Christ was there. …The eternal Word of God… through whom all things came into being. Creation is not a prelude to the Christian story… but is, in fact, where the Christian story begins. Genesis tells us that in the beginning, the earth was formless and empty… and darkness covered the face of the deep. And then God speaks. "Let there be light." And there is light. God speaks… and creation responds. And then God separates, gathers, names, and blesses. …And again and again… God looks at what has been made… and calls it good. And then the Spirit of God moves over the waters… the Hebrew word is ruach… it means wind… breath… Spirit. God speaks… the Spirit moves… and creation comes into being. And so even here, at the very beginning, we have learned to see the mystery of the Trinity. God creates... the Word speaks creation into being… and the Spirit gives life. And yet… Genesis is not giving us a complete doctrine of the Trinity… that comes later, as the church reflects on the whole story of Scripture and on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But once we know that story… we begin to see something that was there all along. Because Creation reveals something about the God who creates. The God we meet in Scripture is not solitary. …God is relationship… and love… God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. …And creation itself is the work of that Triune God. And our Psalm today doesn't simply tell humans to praise God… It calls everything to praise. The sun, moon, and stars… the waters… the mountains… the trees… the wild animals... even the turkey buzzards that live around this church…and finally… us. Praise the Lord! The whole of creation is caught up in worship… And that is one of the things this feast… this festival… is inviting us to remember. We are not standing outside of creation looking in… we are creatures within creation. …We are part of the song. And Paul says something similar in Athens… when he tells the people there that the God he proclaims is the God who made heaven and earth, and that this God does not live in a temple made by human hands. And yet… God is not far from us… because… in God… we live and move and have our being. The God who created everything is not distant from what God has made. …God is both beyond creation… and intimately present within it. And that means creation itself can become a kind of revelation. …Not because creation is God… we do not worship the trees… but we worship the God who made them. And when we look at creation… we can begin to see something about the One who made it. We see beauty… and relationship… and abundance… and interdependence. …We see life giving way to more life. And in all of this, we begin to glimpse the God whose very life… is love. I think this is part of what makes it so beautiful that Christians from the East and the West are celebrating this festival… together. Somewhere in the world right now, Orthodox Christians are praying these prayers… and somewhere else, Methodists are hearing these same Scriptures… and somewhere else, an Anglican congregation is singing a hymn to praise Creation. All different faith traditions… all giving thanks for creation… in different languages… and using different liturgies… but all praising the same Creator… all confessing the same Christ… all receiving the same Spirit. That is… beautiful! And while it's true that being ecumenical won't solve all of our disagreements… it does help us discover what we already share. There is one creation… one human family… one Creator… one Spirit… and one Christ… through whom all things were made. And Creation is not merely something God made a long time ago… Creation is ongoing… and God continues to meet us through created things. Because creation is not just the beginning of our story with God, but it is also the beginning of God's saving work for us. God creates a world… and God loves what God has made… and so when that creation becomes broken… God does not abandon it. …When we become broken… God does not abandon us. Instead… the Word becomes flesh… and Christ enters our world… enters our suffering… our sin… and our death. …and he carries all of it to the cross. And then… on the third day… he rises… because the God who said in the beginning, "Let there be light"… speaks again into the darkness of death… and there is life. So today, as we raise our voices in praise with Christian siblings all around the world… we also celebrate together… that the one through whom all things were made… is the same one who is still making all things new. The Creator has become our Redeemer. The Word has become flesh. The Spirit continues to give us the breath of life. And in Christ… all of creation, including us, is being gathered back into the love of God… this day and always. Amen.

  3. Aug 30

    Solfeggietto

    Today, we had a special musical performance of Solfeggietto, a piano solo from Owen Thompson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. Published Under License From Essential Music Publishing, LLC

  4. Aug 29

    Sermon - 8/30/36

    Year A – Pentecost 14; Lectionary 22 – August 30, 2026 Pastor Megan Floyd               Romans 12:9-21            Matthew 16:21-28   Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, from the Holy Spirit, our Sustainer, and from Jesus Christ, who shows us how to live in an ecosystem of love. Amen. *** Have you ever tried to grow something? Maybe a garden or a houseplant. Maybe you've just tried to keep one of those little plants from the grocery store alive for more than a month. I'm personally not so good at this. But if you've ever done it, you know something important: A plant does not live by itself. It needs water, sunlight, healthy soil… and it needs other plants and organisms around it… because it is connected to everything else around it. Just as a tree in a forest isn't just a tree. …Its roots hold soil in place…the leaves provide shade… the branches provide homes for animals… the fallen leaves become nutrients for the soil. …and the water that falls on that tree eventually becomes part of streams and rivers. And if you take away even just one part of that ecosystem, the whole ecosystem changes. We are also part of an ecosystem… and not just a biological ecosystem. We are part of a human ecosystem… Our lives are connected to one another. What we do affects other people… How we treat the stranger affects the community… How we respond to suffering affects the people around us. Whether we forgive or retaliate …welcome or exclude… it affects the people around us. And ultimately, our human ecosystem is part of the same ecosystem as the trees and rivers and soil and creatures that surround us. We are not separate from creation. …We are creatures within creation. And this gives us a helpful way to understand Paul's words for us this morning… because Romans 12 sounds like a very long Christian to-do list. Love genuinely… Hate what is evil… Hold fast to what is good… Love one another… Serve the Lord…Rejoice in hope. Be patient in suffering… Persevere in prayer… Contribute to the needs of others… Extend hospitality to strangers… Bless those who persecute you… Rejoice with those who rejoice… Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony… Don't be haughty… Don't repay evil for evil… and… overcome evil with good. I can't help but hear all this and think: um… Lord, where do I start? I read an excellent commentary this week by Rev. Melissa Earley, and she makes an important observation… Paul isn't giving us a checklist for holiness… He's actually describing what she calls… an ecosystem of love. And that is a very different thing… in an ecosystem, everything is connected, so rather than having a checklist, we have… a series of relationships. Hope strengthens perseverance… perseverance sends us back to prayer… prayer changes the way we see suffering… humility makes harmony possible… mutual affection makes generosity possible… generosity strengthens community… hospitality creates relationships with people who were strangers. And genuine love… the kind of love that flows from God… is what holds the whole thing together. Paul is describing what happens when God's love takes root in a community. This is not something we ourselves can manufacture. Because remember, following Christ doesn't mean we become perfect people… There will be days when we are impatient… or selfish… or afraid… days when we would rather keep the stranger at a distance… or days when somebody hurts us and our first instinct is to hurt them back. And that's exactly why we trust the love that comes from God to guide us in the way of Christ… to teach us to recognize the difference between our will… and God's will. Last week, Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do you say that I am?" …Peter gave the right answer, "You are the Messiah."…but this week, we discover that Peter had a very different idea about what being the Messiah was supposed to mean. Jesus tells his disciples that he will suffer, be rejected, and be killed… and then rise again. …And Peter says, No, Jesus… That is not how this is supposed to work. Peter thought he understood God's will… he had an idea about what the Messiah should do, and Jesus tells him that his idea is wrong. Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan!" …Follow me… follow my way, not your way… Stop trying to make God's way conform to your way. But… we do this too, don't we? We make assumptions about what God's will must be… We decide what kind of people God must love… or who deserves compassion… or who belongs… or what kind of suffering God should prevent. We decide what a faithful Christian life should look like. …And then Jesus comes along and says, no… follow me… just follow me… and let me show you… and then… he says something even harder… Take up your cross and follow me. Because the way of Christ is not the way of self-protection… it is the way of self-giving love… And self-giving love is vulnerable. Rev. Dr. Luke Powery points out something wonderfully uncomfortable about Paul's call to hospitality… he reminds us that hospitality contains the possibility of hostility. When we welcome another person, we don't know exactly what will happen… They might welcome us back, but… they might not. They might appreciate our kindness… but they also might take advantage of it. Love does not come with a guarantee, and Jesus knew that. …The cross is proof of that. …Jesus lived a life of radical welcome, radical compassion, radical love… and it led him to the cross. So no… God's love is not a promise that we will never be hurt… but living according to God's love means being willing to risk being hurt… because love is stronger than fear. But I want to be clear about something here… This does not mean that following Jesus requires us to remain in situations where we are being abused or harmed. Jesus' call to love is not a command to accept abuse… and sometimes the most loving thing we can do is establish a boundary… sometimes protecting the vulnerable is what love requires. But even when love requires courage, boundaries, or difficult choices… we are still called to resist the temptation to answer evil with more evil… we are called to find another way. …Christ's way. And that brings us back to the ecosystem… Think about what happens in a forest when one part begins to break down. …The trees become stressed. …the soil dries out… insects and disease become more prevalent… wildfires become more destructive… and water moves differently through the land. Eventually, the damage spreads and the whole system becomes less sustainable for life. …And human communities work the same way. When fear replaces hospitality, the ecosystem suffers. …When contempt replaces mutual affection… when poverty is ignored… when racism divides us… the ecosystem suffers. When we treat creation as something separate from ourselves—as nothing more than a resource to consume—the ecosystem suffers… and eventually, the damage comes back to all of us… because there is no "somebody else's" ecosystem. There is only our shared home. …and more than that, it all belongs to God. This is why creation care isn't some extra activity that we can choose if we happen to be interested in environmental issues… it actually flows from the same love that calls us to care for our neighbors. If we love our neighbor, then we care about the water they drink and the air they breathe. …And if we love God's creation, we remember that our neighbors are part of it… and so are we. Human life and the life of creation are not two separate systems. …We are one ecosystem. So rather than hearing Paul's words as a checklist to guide our Christian living… we can instead hear them as the framework for an ecosystem of love… and consider how we contribute to it. Do I make people feel welcome? …do I offer grace and connection? …hospitality and hope? And when we look at the world God has entrusted to us… are we guided by love to leave behind a world that can sustain life? …Are we making room for our neighbors… and for the creatures with whom we share this earth? We won't do it perfectly... that's not the point… and God's love does not depend on our perfection… instead, God's grace invites us to rise every morning and begin again… to wake up and turn back toward the way of Christ. Because ecosystems are living things… they grow and change… they can be damaged… but they can also be restored. …a forest can begin again… a stream can be renewed… a community can heal… a relationship can be repaired. And a church can be a place where God's love is so deeply rooted that it changes everything around it. So… remember Peter. …He knew the right answer to the question, but Jesus showed him that knowing the answer wasn't enough. The real question was what Peter would do with that answer. And so… Yes, Jesus is the Messiah… the Christ… and because that is true… then we love… and we welcome… and we forgive… we care for the stranger… we refuse to answer evil with more evil… we care for the earth that God has made… and we risk love… even though love makes us vulnerable. Because this is the way of Jesus… the way and the will of Christ. Not a checklist… and not a promise that we will never be hurt… But… an ecosystem of love… and every act of love adds life to it… And I believe that by God's grace, all those little acts begin to connect like roots reaching into the soil… …and trees giving shade… people giving hope… neighbors caring for neighbors… strangers becoming friends… with God's love moving through it all… Until one day we look a

  5. Aug 23

    Shall We Gather At The River

    Today, we had a special musical performance of Shall We Gather At The River, a summer ensemble performance with Brenda Kopf, Tammy Heilman, Addie Thompson and Rich Weingartner on handbells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. Published Under License From Essential Music Publishing, LLC

  6. Aug 23

    Sermon - 8/23/26

    Year A – Pentecost 13; Lectionary 21 – August 23, 2026 Pastor Megan Floyd               Matthew 16:13-20   Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, from the Holy Spirit, our Sustainer, and from Jesus Christ, who guides us in our understanding of who he is for us. Amen. *** There is a question at the center of today's Gospel that I think Jesus continues to ask us, even now… "Who do you say that I am?" He's not asking, "Who does your pastor or your church say that I am?" or even, "Who does scripture say that I am?" Jesus is asking his disciples: "But who do you say that I am?" …And so, this morning, I want us to sit with that question. Who do we say Jesus is? Our Gospel takes us to Caesarea Philippi, a place where this question carries some significant political weight. Caesarea Philippi was a place filled with competing claims about power and divinity. It was associated with the worship of the god Pan, and it bore the name of Caesar. It was, in many ways, a place where people were being reminded of who was supposed to be in charge. And it is there, surrounded by all these competing claims, that Jesus asks his disciples:  "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." God in heaven revealed that answer to Peter… he gets it right… and Jesus tells him so… But what I actually find so encouraging is that Peter gets the answer right before he fully understands what that answer means. Because just a few verses later… which we'll dig into next week… Jesus begins explaining what it means for him to be the Messiah… he tells the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and be raised again. And Peter says… nope. Peter understands "Messiah" to mean victory… power… glory… and success. Jesus understands "Messiah" to mean… the way of the cross. Peter confesses Jesus correctly before he understands Jesus correctly. And, I don't know about you, but I find that kind of human fumbling incredibly comforting… because I think that is where many of us live. We come here, to church. We worship together. We pray together. We sing together. We hear God's Word and share in the holy meal together. We participate in the ministry and life of Faith Lutheran Church. And we confess our faith through the words of the creeds. Yet, I know that it is unrealistic to say that every person here fully understands and trusts Jesus… or feels completely certain about every aspect of their faith at every moment. That isn't human… and we're all human. Sure, there are moments when we are completely on board… when our faith feels alive and vibrant… when God's presence seems unmistakable… when we look around and think, "Yes. This is it. I know what I believe." And then there are those other moments… those moments when we have questions… and doubts. …Moments when something happens that makes us push back against what we have been taught. Moments when we say, "God… I don't understand this." …Moments when the teachings of Jesus ask something difficult of us, and we aren't sure we want to go there. Because confessing Jesus as the Christ isn't simply an intellectual exercise. …If we really believe Jesus is who we say he is, then that truth has consequences. …If Jesus is Lord, then our lives are shaped by that confession. If Jesus is the one who reveals God's love to us, then we are called to live lives shaped by that same love… and if Jesus teaches us to love our neighbors, including those who are difficult to love, then we have to wrestle with what that means. If Jesus reveals God's grace, then we have to consider what it means to extend grace to other people—and to ourselves. If Jesus reveals that every human being is beloved by God, then we have to learn to see that divine image in people we might otherwise overlook… dismiss… or even fear. That is not always easy. … and Peter discovered that very quickly. He was perfectly willing to confess Jesus as Messiah. But when Jesus explained what that actually meant, Peter wanted to push back. …but Jesus didn't give up on him. That's also comforting… and it's a reminder that our God is fully of mercy. Jesus didn't cast out Peter… he kept walking with him… kept teaching him… and loving him. …And eventually Peter's understanding deepened. The same is true for us. We don't come to church because we have everything figured out. …Quite the opposite! …we come because we don't. …We come because we are still learning… still becoming. We come because something in us longs to know God more deeply. One of our hymns in the All Creation Sings book sets the words of this longing to a haunting tune… I find it beautiful… The chorus is this… There is a longing in our hearts, O Lord, for you to reveal yourself to us. …There is a longing in our hearts for love we only find in you, our God. (ACS 1078) We keep showing up because somewhere inside us, we sense that there is something more. …We sense the presence of the Divine all around us—in creation, in beauty, in music, in acts of kindness, in forgiveness, in the stranger, in the person sitting beside us. And we want to draw closer to that presence. …We want to understand it. …We want to learn. …We want to deepen the relationship. And that is the work of a lifetime. …Faith is not a box we check off. We don't reach a certain level of understanding and say, "Well, that's done. I guess I can move on." There is always more. …God is always more. …God's full being is simply too much for us to comprehend in this life. …And that's okay. That's good! So, remember always… to yourself some grace. Give yourself permission to be a person of faith who still has questions. …who sometimes feels absolutely certain… and sometimes not so much. Give yourself permission to be like Peter. …Because the good news is that Jesus can work with Peter. …And Jesus can work with us. And also know… that this is one of the reasons we say the creed together. …When we stand together and join with the saints from every time and place, confessing the words of the creed… we aren't simply informing God about what we believe. …God already knows what's in our hearts. We do this… because we are reminding one another… and we are reminding ourselves. We are saying out loud, together, "This is the story we are part of. This is the truth toward which we are turning our lives." And there is something powerful about saying those words together… Even when we don't feel them completely. …Even when our understanding is incomplete, or when our faith is fragile… someone beside us is saying those same words… …and we say them with them… and then together, we carry the confession. Not alone… but always together. That is what it means to be the body of Christ. Sometimes your faith carries me… and sometimes my faith carries you. …Sometimes we are the ones who are certain, and sometimes we are the ones who need someone else to remind us. And together we keep walking. …Together we keep learning what it means to confess Jesus as the Christ. So… let's return to Jesus' question. "Who do you say that I am?" If Jesus were standing here among us today, asking you… What would you say? I can only tell you my answer. For me, I would say… Jesus, you are my redemption and salvation. You gave me everything… your whole life, and you hold me in love and care, even when I do not deserve it. You walk with me through the dark valleys, and you celebrate with me on the joyful mountaintops. You encourage me to live into a life of love and grace and mercy… a life that you yourself demonstrated for us… even knowing that I will never get it perfectly right. And in doing so, you help me understand that living according to your will brings your kingdom closer… heaven on earth …This way of living allows the divine light that is in all people… including in me… to shine. And when that light shines in all of us, the whole world becomes brighter.  Jesus, you are the light, and Lord, I want to live in that light. You are the truth, and Lord, I want to live in your truth. …And so, Jesus, in you I place my trust and my love. That's my answer. …What's yours? Amen.

  7. Aug 10

    Special Music - Blessed Be Your Name

    Today, we had a special musical performance of Blessed Be Your Name, a summer ensemble performance at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. Published Under License From Essential Music Publishing, LLC

  8. Aug 10

    When God's Love Won't Let Go

    Year A – Pentecost 11; Lectionary 19 – August 9, 2026 Pastor Megan Floyd             Romans 10:5-15   Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, from the Holy Spirit, our Sustainer, and from Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen. *** There is something in this passage from Romans that has always troubled me. You may have heard these words used as a kind of spiritual ultimatum: "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  (Rom 10:9) I've heard those words used to frighten people: Have you said the right words? Do you really believe? What if your faith isn't strong enough? What if you haven't confessed properly? But that way of hearing this passage makes salvation sound like something we accomplish. Something we have to get right. And I do not believe that is the gospel. We do not have agency over our own salvation. We don't save ourselves by believing hard enough… And we don't save ourselves by saying the right words. Salvation is God's work… as are grace and mercy… And thanks be to God for that! …because that means our salvation does not depend upon our ability to get God to love us, for God has already acted. In Jesus Christ, God has already come among us... Christ has already died and risen… and God's grace is already being poured out. And that is where Paul takes us in this passage: "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart." Not far away or hidden behind some spiritual achievement… or locked behind a gate that we have to figure out how to open. The Word is near us… Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is near us… because Christ is near us. Always. And I think the great spiritual challenge of our lives is not figuring out how to make God come closer… but rather… learning to recognize that God is already here. God's closeness comforts me, but it has been especially comforting over this past week of turmoil. Many of us are carrying sadness and anger because Meschac, a young man this congregation helped after he came to our country… was taken into custody by ICE last Sunday morning. He is kind and generous, and exactly the sort of person we want beside us in our neighborhoods and communities. And yet… he has been caught up in a system that treats human beings as problems to be removed… rather than neighbors to be loved. It is hard, in moments like this, to see the kingdom of God, and to believe that Christ is near when humanity's cruelty is so very present. But… this is why Paul's words matter. The Word is near… Christ is near. And Christ is especially near to our friend and neighbor whose dignity is being denied. Our calling is not to manufacture the kingdom of heaven. It is to wake up to it. Jesus spent his ministry opening people's eyes. He showed them that the kingdom of God was not merely some distant destination after death. God's reign was breaking into the world already—in healing, forgiveness, mercy, radical welcome and reconciliation, and of course… through love for our neighbor. And when Jesus says, "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself," he is showing us what it looks like to live with our eyes open. This is where our confession of faith comes into play… Yes, we want to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord, and yes, we want to believe it in our hearts. But not because those words are a password that gets us into heaven. We confess Christ because saying it opens our hearts to the reality that is already here. We confess Christ because faith gives us eyes to recognize what God is already doing. We confess Christ because when Christ becomes close to our hearts, our lives begin to change. Our obedience to God's will does not purchase God's grace… it is how we respond to God's grace. Lois Neeves recently gave me a book called Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, and the authors put this beautifully: "Disobedience [to the way of Christ] is a problem, but it can also be an opportunity. If half-heartedness has been stunting your growth, you can reverse its downward pull by repenting and asking God to help you respond to him with renewed trust and obedience. As you do, you may find yourself enjoying unprecedented spiritual growth as God opens up new channels for grace to flow into your life. The way we understand Jesus' words about the kingdom is critical to the kind of life we will live. If we think that the 'kingdom of heaven' is simply about Christ's second coming or about going to heaven when we die, we'll be tempted to become passive and complacent. But if Jesus' kingdom is a living, dynamic reality—a reality that is right now steadily advancing against the kingdom of darkness—that's a different story. As followers of Christ, our obedience is vital because it is a catalyst for the Spirit's work, making us more like Jesus so that his reign can spread across the whole earth." Let me summarize that: our obedience does not make God's kingdom come. God is already at work in our lives. But our obedience to God's will and God's ways can help us see it… and our lives can become a way through which God's love can reach someone else. When we refuse to look away from our neighbor's suffering, when we welcome the stranger and the immigrant, when we stand with someone who is afraid, when we speak up against cruelty, when we forgive, when we feed, when we shelter, when we love—we are not earning our place in God's kingdom. We are living as people who have discovered that the kingdom is already here. This is the freedom of the gospel. We don't have to control God. We can't, actually. Nor do we have to secure our salvation. We can't do that either. And we don't have to be afraid that we haven't done enough… because God has already done what we could never do. And because we are freed from having to save ourselves… we are free to love... Free to serve… Free to stand beside our neighbor who is being harmed and offer protection. We are free to let God's Word become as close to us as our own hearts and as natural to us as the words we speak. So… the question for us this morning is not, "Have I done enough to get into heaven?" But rather, "Where is Christ already here, and am I awake enough to see him?" Because, my friends, Christ is here. Christ is near to you, always. And the kingdom of heaven is not merely something waiting for us at the end of our lives. It is God's living presence among us now. And every time we love God by loving our neighbor… every time mercy becomes visible through our lives… every time we choose compassion over cruelty… we discover that God's love is not only around us, but moving through us. God is already here… already loving us… and already redeeming all of creation. And our calling is simply—and profoundly—to wake up, to recognize that holy grace, and to let it flow through our lives and out into the world. It will be challenging at times… but we don't have to do this alone… because… p God is with us. Amen.

See All (299)

Ratings & Reviews

4
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

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

Information