Sermon - 6/29/25
Your Faith Journey
Third Sunday after Pentecost June 29, 2025 Faith, Okemos I Kings 19:15-16, 19-21. Psalm 16, Galatians 5:1, 13-25[26], Luke 9:52-62 The apostle Paul wrote, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 …it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me… [And these words from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into...
info_outline
Special Music - Holy Manna
Your Faith Journey
Today, we had a special musical performance of Holy Manna by the Summer Singers at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
info_outline
Sermon - 6/22/25
Your Faith Journey
Year C – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost; Lectionary 12 – June 22, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Luke 8:26-39 Letter from Birmingham Jail, MLK Jr. Grace and Peace to you from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the source of our liberation. Amen. *** This past Thursday was Juneteenth… it is the day we honor June 19, 1865, when the last remaining people who were enslaved in Texas were liberated by the US Army… three years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. A few of us came together to honor this day by reading and discussing Martin Luther King, Jr’s, Letter from Birmingham...
info_outline
Sermon - 6/15/25
Your Faith Journey
Year C – Trinity Sunday – June 15, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd John 16:12-15 Athanasian Creed Grace and Peace to you from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is God and the Holy Spirit… the Three-in-One. Amen. Today is Holy Trinity Sunday… now I have several clergy friends who prefer to gloss over this one, but given how cloudy our understanding of the Trinity is, I thought we should dig in, yes? So today… Trinity Sunday… is a different sort of festival… in that what we are celebrating is actually… our church doctrine… it is the church’s explanation of God’s nature as...
info_outline
Special Music - Restless
Your Faith Journey
Today, we had a special musical performance from Calvin Kadrofske on Marimba, as he played the song Restless written by Rich O'Meara at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
info_outline
Sermon - 6-8-25
Your Faith Journey
Year C – Pentecost – June 8, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Acts 2:1-21 Grace and peace to you in the name of our Advocate, God’s Holy Spirit, who walks alongside us every day. Amen. *** God doesn’t create in half measures… ya know? Think about our planet… and all the intricate details included on every level of life… from whole eco-systems down to tiny microbes. Think about… us…you and me… There is no one else quite like you. You are unique and beloved… God knit you together after...
info_outline
How Firm A Foundation
Your Faith Journey
Today we had a special musical performance from members of the Faith Bell Choir, Brenda Kopf, Elaine Harrison, Ann Mayer, and Addie Thompson as they played How Firm A Foundation at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
info_outline
Sermon - 6-1-25
Your Faith Journey
John 17:20-26; Pride Sunday; 7 Easter; June 1, 2025 Additional texts: Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 Rich Weingartner Grace to you and peace from God our parent, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I’m scared. We live in a scary time. When I went up to the UP to visit my parents and family for Easter, I brought my passport with me. No real reason, just some fear that I might be in a situation where I’ll have to try to prove that I’m a US citizen. I hear of friends traveling to foreign countries, some of them who are part of the...
info_outline
Sermon - 5-25-25
Your Faith Journey
Year C – Fourth Sunday in Easter – May 25, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd John 14:23-29 Grace and peace to you in the name of our risen savior, Jesus Christ, who gives us his peace. Amen. *** If you haven’t already heard… we elected a new bishop this past week at our synod assembly. Bishop-elect Julie Schneider-Thomas comes from the outskirts of the Grand Rapids area, where she served two congregations that are in a formal paired relationship. In church lingo… we call that a 2-point, and she...
info_outline
Special Music - Let us Talents and Tongues Employ
Your Faith Journey
Today we had a special musical performance from the Faith Bell Choir as they played Let us Talents and Tongues Employ at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
info_outlineYear C – Pentecost – June 8, 2025
Pastor Megan Floyd
Acts 2:1-21
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Advocate, God’s Holy Spirit, who walks alongside us every day. Amen.
***
God doesn’t create in half measures… ya know?
Think about our planet… and all the intricate details included on every level of life… from whole eco-systems down to tiny microbes.
Think about… us…you and me… There is no one else quite like you. You are unique and beloved… God knit you together after God’s own image, gave you life with God’s own breath… and loves you fully…
God doesn’t create in half-measures… and all that God creates is precious and loved, including you…
And since the beginning of humanity, God has invited us to be in relationship with God… never forcing the relationship, but giving us that choice… because we are loved.
A choice to respond to the presence of God in our lives… in our world… in each other… and within our very own bodies.
What began as God’s breath across the face of the waters, bringing forth life… guiding us as a pillar of smoke… a burning bush… a booming thunder… and a still, small voice…
Always speaking… if we are willing to listen… always guiding… if we are willing to follow… always inviting… if we are willing to respond.
Becoming human in the person of Jesus… entering our lives in the most humble way… teaching… loving… inviting… suffering… dying… forgiving and still loving… still inviting.
The presence of God around us and in us, in countless ways, reminding us that God’s Holy Spirit… has been with us from the beginning, and God’s Holy Spirit will be with us to the end…
Reminding us that God’s Spirit was with us, and is with us, and that even though God in Jesus must ascend to the Creator, we have another advocate… the one who has been with us all along.
God’s Spirit… the pneuma in Greek… the ruach in Hebrew… God’s holy breath that fills your lungs and gives you life… is with you always.
God does not create in half measures… and God does not abandon God’s creation.
But as with all things that are constant in our lives… we often overlook this continual holy presence with us… take it for granted… after all… how often have you stopped to consider the air in your lungs?
So, this was the scene in Jerusalem that day… Jesus had ascended, and now it was time to share the gospel story… time to witness to all that had occurred… time to light a fire under this message of good news!
God’s Spirit… our constant companion… needed to get those disciples moving.
What better chance than to cause a holy disruption during Shavuot… the Festival of Weeks… the Pentecost festival in Jerusalem, which happens 50 days after Passover, commemorating the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people…
A time when Jewish people from all around the known world would have made a pilgrimage to the city to celebrate and honor God’s word.
A mass of people… diverse and inclusive… together… for God.
This is the moment… this is the time… God’s Spirit moves through… and causes a scene…
Like I said… God doesn’t really act in half-measures.
The Spirit of God comes upon these people as a great, roaring sound like a violent rushing wind…
Filling the room and appearing among them like divided tongues, as of fire, and resting upon each of them…
And giving them the ability to proclaim the Gospel in whatever language it needed to be heard…
The Holy Spirit is in the house, demanding attention, engaging every one of their senses… for the Gospel must be heard.
The Gospel… must be experienced.
What a moment! A dramatic onslaught of action and motion… of speaking… and of hearing… confusion… and… of understanding.
Hearing the proclamation of the gospel… hearing the good news of salvation… of love and forgiveness.
Hearing, each in their native language… the message that Love has come and is making all things new.
Death is overcome and new life is born... new breath… new growth.
We are gathered by this swirling wind, but also provoked and pushed to give our witness… to tell our story…
For the Gospel must be heard… and God doesn’t do with half-measures.
Pentecost is only the beginning… the fire that was ignited on that day burns within you still… guiding you toward God’s love… and empowering you to share your story.
God’s Holy Spirit… your constant companion… your ever-present connection to Christ within yourself and in others… is guiding you daily toward God’s love.
And occasionally causing a holy disruption… either as that still, small voice that insists on being heard, or as a roaring wind… a sensory disruption that demands attention and cannot be ignored.
God’s Spirit doesn’t do with half-measures.
Shaking us out of our complacency… our routine… giving us the courage to speak up when our words are necessary… and the wisdom to be silent and listen, when our understanding is required.
God’s Holy Spirit is igniting within us… attuning our senses toward God’s will.
Whenever we feel that push… or pull… a gentle nudge or maybe a hard shove… toward loving more widely, sharing more generously… welcoming more inclusively…
Whenever we feel that call inside our hearts to extend and receive grace and forgiveness more openly… and freely…
That is God’s Holy Spirit igniting within you… that is a Pentecost moment.
What happened to those disciples in Jerusalem on that festival day so long ago was amazing… incredible…
It gave birth to the church and lit a fire under the message, spreading the Gospel to the corners of the world…
For the Gospel must be heard, and God doesn’t do with half-measures.
That experience taught them, and us, that God is doing a new thing… that the Good News of Jesus’s death and resurrection must be heard, and that this is a message for all people, everywhere…
that there are no boundaries around God’s love.
This experience connected them… connected them to the presence of God within themselves and within each other.
It reminded them, and us… that what began as God’s holy breath across the face of the waters… still fills our lungs.
That our Creator, in whose image we are made, filled us with holy breath… guided us through wind, fire, thunder, and silence… loved us through Jesus and inspires us still as our advocate.
The experience of Pentecost is that God doesn’t act in half-measures, and that God’s message of love must be heard.
And so God’s Holy Spirit… the pneuma… the ruach… is within you… sometimes whispering to you, and sometimes shouting… that you are loved…
You are loved with so much abundance that you cannot help but to share that love with others in the name of the one who is, who was, and who is yet to come… Our God and Creator, our Savior, and our Advocate.
You are loved with so much abundance… because God doesn’t create in half-measures. And that… is a message that must be heard.
Amen.