Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise Faith Lutheran Church, Okemos, MI

This is a special musical presentation of Shout Amen! by the Singing Sinners at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Even after the cutting and pruning we talked about last week, Jesus still comes back to love. The cutting and pruning is about letting Jesus clean up our lives in order that we can be more intimate, have a stronger connection with him. In today’s lesson, Jesus uses the example of the love that he has with God. From the Inclusive Bible we hear “As my Abba has loved me,. So have I loved you. Live on in my love.”
What kind of love is this? It is of course the agape or sacrificial love that Jesus demonstrated his entire life on earth. God loves Jesus sacrificially, Jesus loves us sacrificially and now Jesus says continue on in this sacrificial love. So Jesus says continue to do what I have commanded you to do, just as I have kept God’s commands to love another as I have loved you.
In reality, I don’t know if I want to love the same people that Jesus loves. Can you relate to this? People and that includes you and me, can put others down, and this is when we are living out all the isms that we can think of. In reality not one of is the same. At Faith we believe that God created all people equal, and everyone is worthy of God’s love. Our welcoming statement says this.
We, at Faith Lutheran Church, welcome you as a child of God. As Paul said in his letter to the Galatians, “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” (Galatians 3:26) We strive to be a place where everyone is welcomed and affirmed.
No matter your age, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, marital status, faith background, political leanings, or mental or physical ability – you are welcome as you are. As children of God, we are all one in Christ Jesus and rely on the unconditional nature of God’s love and grace to be our help and guide.
But what if someone doesn’t think and feel the way that we do? This is where I have to step back and realize that everyone is on a different journey. As much as I may have a problem with loving them, Jesus still does. This is where the cutting and pruning comes into play. As a human being and as a gay man I know that there are people who believe that I am going to hell and don’t believe that I should have the same rights as heterosexual people.
Jesus still commands me to love them. But why should I have to love them, could I just let Jesus love them? Unfortunately, that is not what Jesus is commanding me to do. As he is not physically here, he is asking me to continue in his love. But is Jesus really asking me to open myself up to hate, ridicule and discrimination?
No, I don’t believe so. I do believe that he is commanding me to find a way to love the person. For me, that is about showing respect. It is a slippery slope to love in this way, but there may be a way of showing respect and setting boundary lines for ourselves.
One of the first things that shows respect is to listen. We need to understand where a person is coming from before we can respond. It may be important to repeat back what a person has told us, not only to make sure that we understand but that they hear the words that they have spoken.
Use I statements when responding. The point is not to criticize or put them down, but to share where we are at and above all our experience. These may be all ways that you already use to connect with people. I remind you of this as we often encounter people who do the opposite and our command is to show a different way of connecting with people.
This is not easy, and we may be exhausted after one encounter. I do not believe Jesus wants us to get hurt. It is important to remember that we may not receive love back, but that Jesus loves us no matter what the other person may say or do. If you receive some love and respect back, the connection may be able to continue.
It is important to remember that Jesus loves us and we are commanded to love one another, regardless. We are not promised love in return from others. It is when we abide, reside, dwell in Jesus’ sacri

Easter 5 B – 04 28 2024

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for his departure. This part of the Farewell Discourses. Jesus knows he will be going home, and he wants his disciples to be prepared. This is a pastoral moment, reminding them that they will not be alone, as he says “I am the vine and you are the branches.
Vine and branches – connected to each other. They are intertwined to the point that you have to work hard to tell one from the other. Jesus and his disciples are best friends. This sounds so good until Verse 2 comes along. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 
Notice Jesus says that if the disciples are bearing no fruit, the branch is totally removed. It is those who are bearing fruit that will be pruned in order to bear more fruit. The disciples have already been bearing fruit, thus Jesus wants them to continue.
This is true, in order for new buds to form there needs to be trimming or cutting off. How many flowers do you have to cut off once they have bloomed and begin to wilt, before new ones can form and grow? Just like the Easter flowers that I have at home.
Jesus actually says that any branch that does not bear fruit needs to be cut off. Wait a minute does this mean that Jesus is letting his disciples know that as they continue without him that they will be expected to continue changing? I believe so. At this time, they don’t know what those changes will look like. Throughout their life with Jesus, what they have been taught and had been doing has come into question.
His disciples had questioned him as he continued to reframe their faith. Jesus was letting them know that he wouldn’t be there physically ready to answer the way that he had been. At the same time, he was reassuring them that he would not be leaving them alone.
You see Jesus says, this cutting off or pruning is not what cleanses you, but it is the word that he has spoken to them that cleanses. He says I know that you are scared of this pruning or cutting off, but it is not about your salvation, rather it is about bearing fruit. When you abide in me and I in you an d do the cutting or pruning, you will bear fruit, people will see me in you.
Cutting and pruning means change and I doubt the disciples were looking forward to it, but yet what had they been doing since they began to follow Jesus. Jesus had been reframing the law that they had learned. Jesus had been teaching that in order to love one another, meant that one would need to change their way of thinking and their actions.
The disciples had been doing it, but did not always find it easy. It often went against the culture and government’s laws. They were often in a difficult spot and as we move into the early church, sometimes they were jailed or stoned.
There are times in our lives that we are challenged to make changes that are not easy. Jesus is letting his disciples know that without cutting or pruning or making changes that they would not remain connected to him and would not be bearing more fruit. When we are not connected to him we began to die and lose the strength that we receive from him.
This cutting or pruning is not something that we do by ourselves. Jesus doesn’t say, “I’m going to sit and watch you stumble through fear while you see the change that could be made or make attempts to do it as Jesus knows that not one of us can make changes on our own. Jesus says apart from him, we can do nothing.
Unfortunately, my call here is to stir the pot and ask questions, as well as make suggestions on how to do things differently. This may make you feel uncomfortable. Although, my job is not to force you to do something.
There have been a number of events recently that people just expect to happen the way that they have always been done. If I don’t know how they have been done, they may not happen the same way. The seven last words of the

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

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Luke 24:45-48
But what had to happen in order for the disciples’ minds to be opened? Jesus had first addressed them with ‘Peace be with you’. This peace in Hebrew is shalom. Shalom is more than just no stress or anxiety. It is about a well-being from the inside out. Jesus was sharing his peace with them and inviting them into it.
As a community of faith, we experience anxiety especially in times of transition and change. We have been getting to know each other. There was an initial meeting by zoom with the council. My live introduction to you was the weekend of the Green Team Sunday last April. I had met some of the leadership on that Saturday night. I was introduced to the congregation, and I believe I read a lesson and participated in the distribution of Holy Communion.
Oh yes, I sang with the choir. After the service was a congregational meeting. While the congregation voted I waited in the library. I waited and waited, and it may have been Addie who went by on her way out and gave me a thumbs up. Thus, it was a positive vote. I thought it was okay then to go back out to meet those who were going out to lunch with me.
There was a bit of anxiety until I had the thumbs up. This is all normal. We can say God’s will be done, but as humans there can always be doubt or anxiety. We have taken this time of transition on together and are making great progress.
The transition team has reviewed the demographics provided for us by Pastor David Sprang from our synod staff. Thanks to Rich, we are able to see those demographics scrolling in the narthex. We have also been formulating our gifts from our “Conversation With the Congregation”. This past week a few members of the Transition Team met with Katie Love to hear more specifically about the needs of our community. At our next team meeting we will formulate goals to present to you on Sunday, May 5.
This takes a great deal of work, but our transition team is working hard through this process. We continue to learn, and many connections are being made as our system here is beginning to reform. This will mean changes, but it is still a work in process. This can create anxiety, and this is normal. Without some anxiety or doubt, we don’t ask the questions in which to learn about ourselves and God’s will.
Let’s see what Jesus used to calm the anxieties of the disciples. We already mentioned the shalom peace that he offered to them. They thought Jesus was a ghost and he said look at my hands and my feet. Touch me and see, if you need to, as a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
Jesus could see that they were still not sure, even though there was some joy expressed. Thus, he asked them for a piece of fish that was prepared over a fire. They had had many meals with Jesus. One that they probably remembered was the feeding of the 5,000 men, besides women and children where there was 5 loaves and 2 fish.
Also, the story before our Gospel lesson this morning, is the Walk to Emmaus where Jesus broke bread at the end of the day and their hearts were burning as they had experienced Jesus’ presence. They knew in that familiar meal, that this was Jesus, their risen Messiah. It is in the familiar that that they and we find peace in the midst of anxiety.
Consider what we do here on Sunday morning. We hear the Word and receive the sacrament, Jesus. This is where we can find peace. It is familiar. It is one place where we encounter Jesus through Word, Sacrament, music and each other. This is why if there are too many things different in worship we feel a little uncomfortable. I’m not saying it isn’t healthy for us to do new th

This is a special musical presentation of Gaelic Alleluia by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.