God’s Love Renews Our Faith Walk
by Rev. Kelly Nieman Anderson
Given Sunday, September 7, 2025
Today’s scripture readings do not, on first listen, sound very loving.
First, we heard a blunt choice from our Hebrew Scriptures, as Moses speaks directly to his people: choose life or death, blessing or curses, prosperity or adversity. I wonder, though, who *exactly* is going to choose curses and death and adversity? At least, when given such a clear choice – I think most people try to choose blessings and prosperity.
Unfortunately, though, we all know that adversity shows up, whether we choose it or not. Misfortunes, hardships, difficulties – whatever we want to call it, those challenges rarely show up as some sort of multiple-choice question. Sometimes, adversity clobbers us over the head, like a Hurricane leaving thousands helpless. Sometimes, adversity sneaks in as a series of bad decisions from which we can’t seem to escape on our own. We will each have difficult seasons in our life – times when we will have to face addiction or illness, grief or desperation, sorrow or struggle, no matter how many Godly choices we’ve tried to make. The real choice we have then, isn’t to avoid adversity, but instead to keep following God’s way of love and God’s path of abundant life, even when bad things happen to us and around us.
Then, in today’s scripture reading from Luke, we learn that large crowds of people wereliterally traveling with Jesus, hoping to hear more about how to make Godly choices in their lives. But Jesus doesn’t promise them an easy life as his disciple. Instead, he also speaks rather bluntly, explaining that following him will mean choosing a difficult path. Back then, “carrying a cross” was no metaphor – a cross was a very real weapon of torture, death, and shame. Given that choice, who, realistically, is going to give up everything to follow Jesus to the cross?
Such blunt scripture readings are always challenging for me to read, let alone preach! So, I had to remind myself that neither of these readings were meant to be separated from the whole message of the Bible. We’ve been reading through Luke’s gospel all summer, and we know that Jesus’ ministry will finally end with his death on a cross, just as he is predicting. Yet, we also know, that Jesus overcomes the cross – and so Jesus isn’t teaching us, week by week, how to die. Instead, Jesus is teaching us, little by little, how to truly LIVE.
Choosing life means choosing to follow God’s loving path. God’s love is always re-creating us – and always offering us new opportunities for loving one another. And, when adversity and challenges cross our path, we let God’s love renew us and recreate us, re-filling us with love so that we can take the next step of faith.
Sometimes, our faith journey still has fallen tree branches and uneven ground, and rocks to trip over and storms which come in the night, and confusion over the map’s directions. But, when we are trying to love God, and follow God’s loving example, then God’s love will keep renewing us. Full of God’s love, we can be brave enough to not only continue walking in God’s ways, but to welcome others to walk alongside of Jesus, too. Disciples walk in the way of faith – committed to life, committed to carrying our cross, committed to bringing about the Kingdom of God here and now, until we join Jesus in heaven forever one day.
Our faith heroes are those who seem to walk confidently through life’s adversities. Luther’s faith was transformed by God’s grace, and then he constantly invited people to join him on a path of discipleship which involved forgiveness and welcome. Such a radical idea nearly got him killed. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran Pastor in Germany during the 1930s, and he spoke up against the holocaust and spoke out against the Lutheran Church which was supporting Hitler’s Regime. Such a radical idea got him killed. Immanuel’s own story includes renewal after the Chicago fire and lovingly welcoming newly arriving neighbors into the community. The Christian Church grows and expands whenever and wherever and however people choose God’s way of love – and let God’s love renew them as they welcome others into loving community.
Choosing God’s way of love may be tougher some days than it is on others. But no matter what has happened to us, or what we have done before, God’s love is always renewing us, always offering us blessings and abundant life, and a chance to share God’s love with others. An abundant and loving life full of blessings might not always mean wealth or success, but instead, God promises that despite any adversities in our past or our present, God is always promising abundant life in our future. Whenever we make small steps towards wholeness and healing, towards becoming the person whom God has created us to be, then we are making the faithful choice to follow God’s way of love and abundant life. God’s love is constantly renewing us, and God’s love is always bringing miracles and good things into our lives, until we finally get to rejoice with God in heaven forever.
Thankfully, most of us will not have to literally take up a cross. Even though many faith martyrs have faced execution, torture, or other hardships for their faithful choices, most of us are asked to make faithful choices in more subtle ways. Some of our faith heroes aren’t famous martyrs. Some are sitting right next to us at church on Sunday, like my friend Nina.
Nina is a super mom, and as she tells it, one day her 11-year-old asked her, “shouldn’t I be in confirmation?” with the kind of accusatory look that only a pre-teen can manage. Well, yes, of course, she should, all of the kiddos should probably be in Sunday School or Confirmation, at least occasionally. The only problem was that Nina had just moved to that town and was parenting 5 children (from toddler to teen), while her husband’s work schedule kept him away from home most of the week. She was just barely managing all that when one of the littles was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes – and there were still health emergencies most days (or nights). Frankly, getting a family of 6 to church on Sunday, especially with a sick child, just seemed ridiculously exhausting.
But, like I said, Nina is a super mom. So, one day, she overcame all the guilt and shame and exhaustion and managed to get all the kids packed up and over to church, registered them all for Confirmation and Sunday School, and stayed to volunteer, because one child needed her to be there with the emergency diabetes kit. For several years, choosing to love God and walk in God’s ways meant letting God’s love renew her every Sunday morning for the very real challenge of getting everyone to church and managing the little one’s sugar levels through snack time. Nina didn’t “lead” anything. She didn’t consider herself a “church worker”. She just showed up.
Until the Children’s Ministry coordinator asked her to consider another step of faith. When I met Nina, she had just signed up to work with me at the biggest ELCA church in Michigan, leading a Sunday School program with about 80 kiddos and 15 volunteers every week. Initially, she just agreed to help for a year, not really knowing if this leadership role was the right step for her own faith journey. Eventually, though, Nina kept choosing to share God’s love with the kiddos, and the leaders, and the parents, and me – showing up every single week and letting God’s love renew us all through her calming and loving presence.
I was a new youth leader myself at the time, and new to the ELCA. I had heard plenty of Sunday School lessons about choosing to walk in God’s ways and take up our cross to follow Jesus. But, honestly, all the seminary lectures in the world couldn’t match the pure joy and love in Nina’s eyes every week, as she welcomed every single person, every single time, to join church and Sunday School however they could. She didn’t care what you wore or what time you showed up. She didn’t care if you ate snack or sang songs, or knew how to fold your hands or colored in the lines. Nina knew – and she taught me – that just showing up was a step of faith. Anyone who had taken the effort to come to church that day had chosen God’s love and God’s blessings, and it was our job to help them on their faithful journey, no matter what cross they had to bear.
Choosing to follow God’s path – the way of life, of love, of blessings, and abundance – is a daily habit of faithful people. Every day, as God’s love renews us, we are able to make Godly choices, focused on life and prosperity for all. The things we eat, wear, and buy might be those which give life to farmers and the earth… or they might be options which are slowly killing people and resources. The words we say might offer someone hope and comfort… or our words might be hurtful and harsh. The ways in which we spend our time might be a reaction to worry, doubt or fear… or we might invest our time in the people and places which reflect God’s abundant love.
Sometimes, choosing God’s way of life and following Jesus to the cross is a tremendous effort which requires much faith, and patience, and loving support from others. Other times, we are so renewed by God’s love that we are easily overflowing with blessings for others. No matter what part of the faith journey you’re on today, know that God’s love is already blessing you, every single day, along every single careful step of faith. Together, we remind each other of God’s renewing love for all creation, sharing in God’s blessings and abundance, choosing God’s way of life, together.
