Worship

Please join us for Traditional Service on Sundays at 1:00 PM.

FCCC has resumed “in-church” services at 1:00 PM in the sanctuary on Sunday. If you can’t attend the “in-church” service you can still listen to the “in-church” service on the Conference Call Audio Service (909-318-7828) or watch live on your computer or smartphone by clicking on the link below.

(youtube.com/channel/UCNqojf_N467zRP66rpfvUAQ/live)

Also, the midweek Conference Call Audio Service continues every Wednesday at 10 a.m. Dial-in number: 909-318-7828. Please join us!

We are meeting at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, 1550 Walton Blvd., Rochester Hills, Mi,48309

Pastor Tom Sayers

586-703-6249

tommsayers@yahoo.com

Message for Sunday January 5, 2024 (originally Jan 2, 2022)

“Leaving By Another Road!”

Faith Community Christian Church

Pastor Tom

How do we hold onto the feeling? Just 11 days later, the needles are falling, the poinsettias are drooping, and the cookies are stale. How do we hold onto the warmth, the wonder, the welcome of Christmas?

Friends, if we try, we can hold onto the feelings, the images, and the memories.

Welcome on this first Sunday of the New Year.

This Sunday is called Epiphany on the church calendar, and it’s a celebration of the coming of the Magi. In our secular language, an epiphany is a new way of seeing or understanding.

So it’s appropriate that we should begin a new year with an epiphany, a new way of seeing, a new vision, an image of what our lives can be.

Like the Magi of old, we need to open our minds, and stretch our imaginations.

Did you come searching like the Magi this afternoon?

God loves searchers. The wise men, first of all, were searchers.

And, they were searchers who set out on a journey of faith.

That’s important. There are many journeys we take.

The Magi had a specific goal in mind for their journey.

No wonder we call them wise. They were looking for the King of the Jews, the Messiah, so that they might worship him.

There are many journeys we can take in today’s world, many voices we can listen to, many stars that we can follow.

But only one leads us into the path of abundant life.

I want to challenge you today to set out on a journey of faith in this New Year. Get deep into your faith. Spend more time in prayer. Focus more intently in worship on God’s purpose for your life.

And, here is the key to life: Give of yourself, to God and to others.

On this first Sunday of the New Year, we have the thought in our minds that Christmas is over. There is often the urge, the desire, to pack everything up and get it out of the way.

But, sometimes, I think we rush away from it too quickly, do too good a job at cleaning up after it, and in that we run the risk of removing it from our lives.

What if we could really hang onto to Christmas and take it with us into these days ahead of us in the New Year?

I want to suggest to you today that we can do just that.

I don’t mean that everything is going to be perfect, or always go our way.

Nor do I mean we will be able to escape the same routine and the same duties that we have had to struggle with before.

Today, we are reminded of the story of the visit of the Magi, three wise men from the east, to the holy family in Bethlehem.

We believe there is value in lingering for one last look.

They are the reason we celebrate Epiphany, for the wise men represent us. For the wise men who began following this star, it was the beginning of a long, life-altering, all-consuming journey.

Friends, we all start at different places when we decide to follow that star. Some with a heritage of faith and a solid church family, others begin without any spiritual direction whatsoever.

Some of us start early in life, seeking faith and fulfillment in childhood, others begin late in life, looking for spiritual solace only when wrinkles and gray hairs have contoured and colored our perspective.

But no matter where your journey begins, if we faithfully “follow that star,” our destination is determined.

We will come to the baby, lying in his mother’s arms; to the Rabbi preaching, teaching and healing all over the countryside; to the Son of God hanging on the cross; to the risen Savior standing by our side and calling us into the light.

The wise men follow their dream and return home. And we must decide whom we shall hear and whom we shall follow.

What is it in your past that keeps giving you a hard time?

Is it something you did, and the guilt of it still hurts?

Is it something you failed in and the disappointment of that will not let you go? Is it something someone else did to hurt you, and you keep rehearsing it, and the pain of it will not go away?

Is it grief? Someone or something you once had and now have lost, and your life seems empty as a result?

Surely we understand that God doesn’t intend for us to live like that. Our God is not a God of the past, but of the future.

Our God is one who says again and again: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold everything is new!” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Friends, I’m sure of this; whatever is hurting you, whatever is holding you back, whatever is keeping you from the fullest possible experience of life, God wants to gather it up and take it away so it will never bother you again. And God will do that, if you let Him.

Many people at this time will be thinking about New Year resolutions. What we need, of course, is not another resolution, but a revolution. We need a turning point in our lives.

Like the wise men of old we need to catch a glimpse of a guiding light, and we need to follow that light to a New Life in Christ.

We’ll Close With This: They did find the Christ child, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. They gave Him gifts. They gave Him gold, the appropriate gift to give a king. They gave Him frankincense, a powerful smelling incense which was the usual gift given to a priest. They also gave Him myrrh. This one may have raised Mary’s eyebrows a bit. Myrrh was the spice used to rub the body in final preparation for burial.

And then they went home by another road.

This afternoon we’re invited to come to the manger once again with the Wise Men.

And like the Wise Men we’re invited to go home by another road.

This afternoon we’re invited to come to Bethlehem, “the house of bread” and to leave by another road. This afternoon we’re not only offering bread and wine for the journey but healing too.

I don’t know what it is that might be troubling your heart. I don’t know what you’ve come seeking this afternoon. But know this. God is in this place and God will meet you where you are. And God offers what you are seeking. If you will seek Him.

So come this afternoon to the Table. Make that journey of faith like the Wise Men. But then listen to God as God leads you home on another road. Leave what is troubling you behind.

Leave the worries that eat at both your heart and your body.

Leave the hurt and the pain caused by others.

Leave the guilt of sin.

Leave all that behind and leave by another road, the road of forgiveness. The road of healing. The road of love & eternal life.

You came by one road seeking something this afternoon.

Listen to God, be fed by God, and be touched by God.

Start the New Year on a new journey and leave by another road. Happy New Year. Amen.

*Reasons for joining the FCCC Choir:

“The collection plate is never passed to the choir.”

“When you forget to do your laundry, the choir robes cover dirty clothes.”

*Things you never hear in church:

“I volunteer to be the permanent Sunday school teacher!”