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

Sermon 4/6/2025 – Jn 12:1-8

The prophet Isaiah brings us words from our Lord God:

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

This is a beautiful reminder that God will surprise us

God makes a way for us

God brings out an army of fighters for us

God nourishes and replenishes us

Whatever we face,

God is there, navigating beside us

The arc of the Gospels from Luke these past weeks have been building the tension toward Jesus' arrest and crucifixion

We can feel the tension within the community

The Pharisees are threatening Herod's wish to kill Jesus

They're grumbling about what Jesus is doing and who he's hanging out with (all the wrong people)

And Jesus is responding with outrageous parables about how God isn't going to fall in line with human expectations

God is extravagant in God's love for God's people

God will protect God's people like a fierce mother hen

God will nourish the fig tree until it bears fruit

God will welcome the wayward son with open arms and celebration

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

In the midst of anxiety

With the threat of death

Burdened with tension

God is there

God is about to do a new thing

Can we perceive it?

Can we?

Because fear

Anxiety

Tension

The energy of these emotions

act like walls

Huge barriers to God's love

Barriers that make God's love, mercy, tenderness and forgiveness sit on the outside of our hearts ---

One thing we know about anxiety and tension –

Is that they spread

They are more contagious than Norovirus or Influenza A

As they travel among people and communities

So today, we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah and the Gospel story about Jesus in a safe place, the home of his friends

His chosen family – Lazarus who he raised from the dead, and Martha and Mary

These people who are close to Jesus have been shown the nature of God through the person of Jesus

They have been shown God's extravagant love again and again

Through parables

And miracles

Through Jesus raising Lazarus from death

But the tension from the community is there,

It's seeped in

It has spread into their home

Into their hearts and minds

as Mary does a new and extravagant thing

We read these stories year after year

We know that Judas is the "bad guy", who will betray Jesus to the soldiers leading to his imprisonment and crucifixion

But having a woman act as the "good guy" is surprising

It would have been even more surprising then than it is now

For Mary to demonstrate God's abundance

For Mary to break cultural expectations

Challenging gender roles

As she takes her hair down

Uses an entire pound of perfumed oil

And wipes Jesus' feet

But Mary's role isn't the only surprising role in this story

We see the human side of Jesus,

the fierce advocate,

the strong defender,

the wise teacher,

the righteous Son of God,

As he sits and acknowledges his need of tenderness

His need of support

His weariness from these past months

As Mary cares for him

Wiping the tension out of his whole body through his feet

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

We acknowledge the intimacy of this act on Maundy Thursday when Jesus washes the feet of his disciples

Imagine the intimacy of Mary wiping Jesus' feet with her hair and expensive perfume…

Imagine how close she would have to sit to Jesus…

Imagine her face, and her gaze upon him…

Imagine the smell of the perfume, an entire pound of it,

filling her nostrils

and wafting up to Jesus' face, filling his nose

The lovely fragrance spreading…permeating the entire room

Lingering…

Imagine his gaze upon her…

As Jesus sits around the dinner table, surrounded by others, and Mary touches his feet for the first time…

Imagine Jesus' surprise as she continues ministering to him until the entire jar is gone…

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

Now imagine God caring for you in that extravagant and tender way

Imagine God knowing all you've done

And not done

All you've endured

And all you're facing in life

Imagine God bringing God's self so close to you

So close, just a hair's length away

Close to even the dirtiest and sorest parts of yourself

Not just the parts you'd offer first

But even the embarrassing and hurt parts

The parts you keep tucked away and covered

Imagine God coming so close to those parts

And blessing them

Wiping them

Loving them

Anointing your past, present and future

With a beautiful and unexpected fragrance

That takes over your whole self

That fills the whole room

That is obnoxious in a way that even others notice

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

/ / / /

We are so often like Judas

Keeping track

Judging

Anxious

As the tension of our community and world

Spread and infect our spaces

Our school and work

Our congregation

Our homes

Even our thoughts and hearts

Which is why this season of Lent is all about repentance

Turning back toward God

Taking a chance to let down the walls and barriers

The hardness this world has erected within us

And let God in

Let God sit so close to us

Let God let down God's hair

Let God use the whole jar

And reach our most unpresentable parts

Let God tenderly touch those parts of us

Let God wipe them clean,

Let God bless them,

and anoint them

with God's extravagant and Holy love

Amen

This is a special musical presentation of Lonesome Valley, sung by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical presentation of Lonesome Valley, sung by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Year C – Fourth Sunday in Lent – March 30, 2025

Pastor Megan Floyd

Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32

Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord, Jesus Christ, whose abundant grace makes our repentance possible. Amen.

***

This fellow welcomes sinners and tax collectors… and eats with them.

I don't know what these particular sinners did for the Pharisees to label them as such… but the tax collectors worked for the Roman government… they were agents for the Empire…

For the average Jewish person, the tax collectors were the people who were actively working against your livelihood and your well-being.

They were… not welcome at any decent Jewish person's table… so the fact that this fellow, Jesus, welcomed tax collectors and ate with them is… well… it's pretty offensive.

This fellow… Jesus… he sure is a troublemaker… he is always getting the Pharisees grumbling.

And so, Jesus responds to their grumbling with a parable that is even more offensive… on so many levels…

It has a terrible, manipulative son who demands that his father give him his inheritance as if his father is dead to him…

and then squanders all the money on prostitutes and ends up starving, surrounded by pigs… and… he is not sorry about what he did.

He is not full of remorse… he does not repent, and then return to his father…

What drives him to return home… is that he is hungry, and he thinks he can con his dad into feeding him again.

But the hardest thing to admit is that perhaps… the greatest offense in this story… is that the father's grace is so freely and abundantly given.

Yes, it is grace… that is most offensive here.

***

I confess to you… that I continually find myself identifying with the older brother.

I cannot help my instinctual reaction and impulse that there must be some divine consequence for the actions of the younger son…

I cannot help but overlay the sin of the younger brother with examples of offensive sin in our modern time…

I see in him those who are, today, manipulative and conniving, those who seize power and use it to increase the exploitation of the poor, the marginalized, and the vulnerable.

I see in him those who would squander the wealth and prosperity of generations for their own gain…

and those who are so blinded by prejudice and a fear of the 'other' that they are dismantling the work toward equality and equity that others have worked and died for…

and I am offended.

I am offended at what Jesus' story teaches us about God… that God's arms are open wide and full of love and grace for all… even the unrepentant sinners.

Even though I am well-versed in how much God proclaims unconditional love for all. I am still offended… this is my sin.

And yet, I so deeply empathize with the hurt the older brother feels when he realizes there is a celebration happening, and he's not part of it.

I get angry… I confess this to you… I am offended by this story.

Which, of course, means that I am just as much in need of forgiveness and grace as either one of these brothers…

So… if you don't mind, I'm going to preach to myself here for a few minutes because I am, clearly, captive to my sin and in need of some good news…

***

During Lent, we've been paying close attention to God's urgent call to return… return to the Lord, repent… change your heart… change your mind, and turn your attention back to God and God's love for you.

And what this parable today illustrates for us is that… we cannot truly repent until we have received, and accepted, God's grace and love…

The younger son… as I said earlier… what drove him back to his father was not remorse… it was hunger. Had he found a meal, he would likely not have gone back.

Only when he showed up and realized that his father had never stopped searching for him… never stopped loving him… that his father's arms were open wide and full of mercy and grace…

Only then… did this young son's heart soften… only then did the transformative power of genuine repentance go to work on him.

Grace is not a reward for our repentance. Grace… makes our repentance possible.

…and our repentance itself is a loving gift from God, given to help us heal… given so that we can be made whole.

Our repentance, made possible through grace, transforms our inward concern for our own needs and gain… into outward love for others and their well-being.

Our ability to humbly come before God and confess that we have strayed from the way Jesus called us to go… to come before God and confess our sin… is only possible… because we have first received… grace.

God is not trying to manipulate us into a fake apology or a disingenuous change in behavior… the offer of grace is not coercion…

God offers us this grace freely… and in so doing, God is creating the conditions for us to be made new.

God will not settle for anything less than a full transformation… a full redemption… a new creation.

But… for this to be so… we must hear this good news first… God loves you, God forgives you, and God's arms are open wide, and full of mercy and grace, waiting for you to come home.

And once we are home, safe in God's embrace… only then, can we begin to heal from our sin… to be healed and made whole.

Bathed in mercy and grace, washed in love, we are made new, and therefore, just as we are a new creation in Christ, we cannot help but look at our neighbors in a new way…

We cannot help but see God's love in them, see the dignity and value in all people, even those we have sinned against… in thought, word, or deed

…and yes, even those who have sinned against us.

We cannot love the world as God so loves the world… until we allow God's grace to heal our hearts… and to confess that we are as much in need of that grace and healing as anyone else.

We are as much in need of that grace and healing as the lost and wayward children, the con artists, the scoundrels, those who are collaborating with the Empire, and yes… even the resentful older brothers…

…we ALL need God's grace and healing… God's unfair and offensive, extravagant and boundless grace…

I need to hear this every day… God loves me… God forgives me… and God's arms are open wide and full of grace.

***

I still can't help but empathize with that older brother and the hurt he must have felt when he realized he was not included in the celebration.

He was so wound up about who is deserving of his father's love… who is acceptable, who is worthy, who is deserving of mercy… that he refused to go into the celebration.

He was so convinced of his own righteousness, and the wrongness of his brother, that he missed the party.

I get it. I understand how he could feel this way… and I also understand that he is missing the point.

You see, I don't read this celebration as an allegory for eternal life with God…

The celebration is a real party, and it's happening now…

it is our joyful response to our transformation – the new life and the new creation that comes from true repentance… and for the grace that makes it possible… right here and now… every day.

The offensive celebration… is for the healing of a heart that has gone astray!

For once, we were lost… and now we are found!

The older brother has been with the father all this time… but he, too, has let his heart go astray… he has taken his position in his father's house for granted,

and has failed to return, again and again, to his father's embrace of love and grace… he failed to allow that grace to continually renew and re-create his heart.

The older brother has fallen captive to his sin, and he made it all about himself… saying to his father… but what have you done for me?

But his father… who loves him… who forgives him… says to his son, my arms are open wide for you too, and full of grace, just as they have always been… come, and be made new.

Come into my grace… let it go to work on your heart, and be transformed by my love… and then, my child… you, who have been made new, will have no other response but to rejoice.

And so, Lord, I pray to you… guide me… guide us… every day… into your transformative embrace, and let us celebrate with you. Amen.

Join us for a lenten service from March 26, 2025

This is a special musical presentation of Come to the River, sung by the Chancel Choir and Andy Boyan on Guitar at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Year C – Third Sunday in Lent – March 23, 2025

Pastor Megan Floyd

Luke 13:1-9

Isaiah 55:1-13

Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who, together with the Holy Spirit, long for us to live fruitful lives full of abundance. Amen.

***

I learned a long time ago that… I can't tell the difference between a trombone and a baritone… or an oboe and a clarinet.

Now, if I'm looking at them, then yes, I can tell them apart and would even agree that they sound different…

but the quality of their different sounds is not overly distinctive to my ear… so I struggle to tell them apart based on sound alone.

It's just not something I have much experience with.

I discovered this… tragic failing of mine back in college when I had some elective courses to fill, and I thought it would be fun to take …the History of Jazz.

I thought I was taking a history class… I enjoy history… But it was not so… it was apparently a music class disguised as a history class.

And I almost failed…

A big part of the class involved listening to classic jazz pieces and identifying the parts of the music… not only the instrument but the artist… based on the way they were playing.

I was way out of my league.

But over the course of the semester, I was able to train my ear just enough to scoot by… and I also think the professor had mercy on me.

I know there are people out there who are naturally gifted with hearing and can pick up on subtle differences in sound… but I think most of us have to be trained to do that…

…and if we want to keep that skill and build on it, well… then we need to practice.

It's very similar to our ability to recognize God's presence in our lives… and to truly listen to God's word in such a way that it shapes our lives toward fruitful living.

We have to be taught… trained to recognize God through word and action… and we have to return to God every day… to practice.

***

The prophet Isaiah tells us this week to "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call up him while he is near."

It's part of this beautiful invitation to come to the banquet… all who thirst… and all who hunger… Come! Eat and drink…

it's all freely given, and it is so much better than the junk food you had before… the stuff that did not satisfy… come… and eat what is good!

No one is turned away! The Lord is near… and wants you to truly live!

This must have been incredible for the Israelites to hear… it was likely written around the time of Israel's return from the Babylonian exile, around 538 B.C.E.

Can you imagine? Returning home after being exiled… returning to God after hardship and struggle… and hearing God's promise anew that God's love covers all.

God proclaims… "Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live."

Listen. Train your ear to hear…

Listen to God's word… and hear the promise that is spoken over you. Listen… so that you may live!

And to those who have wandered away… to those who have chosen or stumbled onto the wicked and unrighteous path… let them also listen… and hear God's promise…

so that they might also return to God… and God will have abundant mercy on them.

Listen… so that you may live!

Your God, who loves you, wants you to have the fruitful and flourishing life that you were created to have… God wants your life… to bear good fruit… and through God's word, we are given all we need to achieve it.

But we must listen… and return daily to God's word… to practice our hearing.

***

There are just a few problems with all this…

For starters, this open invitation to all is… well… pretty open… but we humans sure do like exclusivity… we like the V.I.P. treatment… so we struggle with the idea that everyone is invited to this banquet.

Also, we like to think there is a hierarchy of sins… but that's our invention… God doesn't seem to play that way.

God's offer of compassion and mercy doesn't seem to have the qualifiers that our human systems want to place around everything.

And furthermore… sure… God wants us to live a fruitful life… but that's harder for some… for all sorts of reasons… with lots of stumbling along the way.

Even if we ignore the fact that many of the struggles some people face are due to the sin of human systems that are designed to keep them down and struggling…

Most human… societies or even families… eventually want to give up on those who struggle with bearing good fruit…

And yet, like the fig tree in our Gospel passage from Luke 13, God seems determined to give us more chances… to give us more time… to nurture us, and help us grow…

God is determined for us to train our ears to hear… to listen… so that we may return to our Lord and live the fruitful and flourishing lives God created us to live!

God comes to us in our pain and our struggle… and says… have mercy… give it another year… let us nurture this beloved child and give her more time…

Because… thankfully…mercifully… God's thoughts are not our thoughts… and God's ways are not our ways.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God declares that God's love will not be denied… no obstacle is greater than God's word!

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout…

So shall my word be… it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace!

God is near to you now… and longs for you to incline your ear and listen to the promise found in God's word… to hear that word and repent, so you might return to the Lord, your God, every day.

***

Both Isaiah and Luke emphasize the urgency of our repentance… but to be clear… this isn't a transactional experience…

Repentance… returning our heart and mind to God… is not a quid-pro-quo… it is not a trade we make with God… we are not trading our remorseful apology for God's grace and forgiveness.

Our repentance… is an act of faith… It's an acknowledgment of how much we need God's grace, and it communicates our trust that God hears us, knows us to our core, and still loves us.

God offers us grace and forgiveness… and our repentance allows us to receive these gifts… receive them, but not hide them… God's gifts are meant to be shared.

Our repentance is an act of faith that opens the way to a life that bears good fruit.

…it acknowledges that when we return our hearts and minds to God, and truly listen to God's word with ears that are trained to hear…

it will shape us… it will shift our hard-heartedness into compassion and patience… our cruelty into mercy and kindness… and our indifference into empathy and love.

Compassion… patience… mercy… kindness… empathy… and love… are signs of a fruitful life… the kind of flourishing that God created us to live.

***

But even if we are not quite there… even if we stumble and are not quite as compassionate or loving as we ought to be… God, who is near, tells us to practice our training.

Give it a little more time… return to God now and incline your ear to God's word that guides us back to fruitful living.

Don't wait until you have it perfect… don't wait until you think you are worthy… return now.

God is not waiting for us to figure everything out… not waiting to bestow grace upon us until we have shed all questions and doubt.

No… God is already here, speaking to us… speaking a word of light into our darkness… a word of love into our suffering…

and so we train our ear to listen, to hear God's word.

Like the talent of distinguishing a trombone from a baritone…

we learn to distinguish God's word based on the good fruit it produces, both in us and through us.

And we return to the Lord daily to be nourished by God's word…

and trust that God's word, which is sent out with joy, will not return empty but will be led back in peace.

Listen… so that you may live!

Amen.

This is a special musical presentation of Once Upon A Tree, sung by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Year C – Second Sunday in Lent – March 16, 2025

Pastor Megan Floyd

Luke 13:31-35

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Grace and peace to you from God, who is faithful and true, and from Jesus Christ, our Mother hen, who fiercely protects and provides for us. Amen.

***

Have you ever been chased by an angry chicken?

I have not… the only animals I grew up around were dogs and cats, and the occasional fish… so I do not have much experience with chickens.

And because of my lack of experience, I used to miss much of the nuance of this passage from Luke… I didn't quite understand the intensity of the creature to which Jesus compares himself.

I mean… it's a chicken. Not exactly scary, right? Chickens are famous for being… well… chicken… they're scared of everything!

Well… so then… one of my friends who raises chickens set me right.

Yes… they are scared of everything… until you threaten their babies.

A mother hen is gentle and nurturing to her brood. She provides for them, and gathers them under her feathers, sheltering them and keeping them warm.

But when her babies are in danger, she will not hesitate to go after the threat with fierceness and tenacity.

She will go to great lengths to protect her vulnerable baby chicks… even if it costs her… her life.

***

God… as a fierce Mother hen… it's a surprisingly beautiful way to understand who God is in Jesus… but not exactly what the early disciples really hoped for… or expected in a messiah.

…and I think it's still that way for many people today.

God's people had long awaited a conquering hero… a king who would overthrow the empire and crush those who were crushing them.

And instead… we got Jesus. Not a brave warrior, but a poor, gentle Rabbi who insisted on hanging out with all the wrong people.

Jesus was not a powerful ruler who would destroy our enemies… but a suffering messiah who calls upon us to love them.

We think the strongman is the better deal… we are so conditioned to believe that the powerful and brash leader is the one who will save us…

But only the one who was crucified on the cross …has the power to save.

Jesus knew the forces of the empire were against him… he knew that his mission would end in death.

But just like a Mother hen, Jesus was willing to face death – even death on a cross – in order to protect us… protect us from ourselves and our own sin…

and provide for us… provide the salvation that can only come from God.

Jesus was willing to face death… because Jesus is God, and God promised long before… that we would always be God's beloved children… and God is faithful to God's promises.

God made this covenant with our ancestors, Abram and Sarai… we are God's people…

***

Even Abram doubted though… the scene we read today from Genesis describes one such moment of doubt.

Abram laments because the promised future has not yet come to pass, but God reassures him… and Abram believes.

But God takes this even further… God instructs Abram to bring animals for a ritual, and cut them in half, and lay them out, each side facing the other.

And then God… passed through between the cut animals… to secure the covenant.

You've heard the expression… to "cut a covenant" or "cut a deal" …yes? …this is where it comes from.

The one who passes through demonstrates that they will fulfill their promise, and if they falter… then let happen to them what has happened to these animals.

God promised to Abram and Sarai that they would be the ancestors to a great multitude of people… and that they would be God's children forever… under God's care and provision.

And so, God passed through those animals to secure the promise for Abram, and to assure him that God will remain faithful to God's promises… even unto death.

God claimed us as God's own, and laid foundations of love and trust… faithfulness and provision.

And from the very beginning… God showed us what God was willing to do for us, to nurture and build this mutual relationship…

Humans are the ones who falter and fall away… humans have not always held up our end of the agreement… but not God… God remains true.

***

And so… roughly two thousand years after cutting that covenant with Abram… Jesus… who is God… knew where his mission would take him… he knew Herod was against him…

Maybe the Pharisees were genuine in their attempt to warn him… or…

maybe they were taunting him… hoping he would abandon his disciples and his mission, and run and hide…

…maybe they were calling him a chicken.

So, Jesus, in turn… calls Herod a fox. That's not a compliment.

The fox is the notorious enemy of the chicken – and not just because he's a predator.

My friend who taught me about chickens, also taught me about foxes… A fox doesn't just kill when he's hungry.

A fox will savage an entire hen house, killing indiscriminately and leaving the bodies behind.

In calling Herod a fox, Jesus names Herod as a danger to everyone, including the Pharisees before him.

But a hen… a Mother hen, when faced with a threat to her babies… never leaves her post.

He tells the Pharisees that he's casting out demons and healing the sick… nothing will deter him from his mission.

Jesus is resolute …even knowing that the path leads through death, he does not waver… because he also knows… that on the third day… the work will be complete.

On the third day…sin and death will be defeated… and Love and mercy will prevail.

We may still falter in our faithfulness to God… but God does not. God remains faithful and true to us, and through Jesus' death and resurrection, God has redeemed us… once and for all.

Through Jesus' death and resurrection… we are saved… because Jesus gave his life to protect us…

***

God in Jesus… is a fierce Mother. …and yet, tender and merciful, and full of love… longing to gather us under her wing… even though some are unwilling.

God in Jesus is not an abstract idea of a god who controls the world through puppet strings, or teases us around like playthings…

Jesus… is God who is near… a living, breathing, loving light in our lives who is worthy of our trust and love… worthy of our devotion…

the kind of devotion that changes how you live in this world…

…the kind of devotion that bends your heart toward those who are cast out and vulnerable… because they are among the first ones Jesus gathers to himself.

Jesus is God… a mothering God, spreading her great wings over us, sheltering all of Creation in her feathers, protecting us… and ultimately giving her life… to save us.

***

God has redeemed us… redeemed you… and me… God has given us grace and mercy…

God has fulfilled the covenant made with Abram and Sarai… once and for all… and secured our place, for all time… as God's beloved children…

And we, who are beloved children …we can trust in the fierce determination of our God to protect us from our sin…

…and trust in the shelter of our Lord, always.

Amen

Join us tonight for a lenten service.