Sermons by Liz Miller (Page 3)

Sermons by Liz Miller (Page 3)

An Epiphany Journey

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: January 3, 2021 Text: Matthew 2:1-12 The coinciding of Epiphany and the New Year is my favorite pairing. The New Year is all about learning from the lessons of the previous year and setting our intentions for the months ahead. The New Year recognizes that we are on a journey – that surely much of last year will spill into the next, but that we have agency about what we do with it, and we can…

Star Gifts

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: January 5, 2020 Text: Matthew 2:1-12 It is the start of a new year and a new decade. The United States is at the brink of war, yet another far-flung, never-ending war for resources and power with the threat of countless casualties on all sides. News of wildfires in Australia rage on, bringing worries of climate change to a heightened state. We are only five days into 2020 and it seems like each day there…

The Christmas Story In Poem and Song

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: December 15, 2019 Text: Lessons and Carols performed by Edgewood United Church, UCC Choir, directed by Monty Bieber Poem “We Are Called to Proclaim the Truth” Allan Boesak SONG “Every Valley” From the cantata The Winter Rose Words and music by Joseph M. Martin This energetic chorus is the fourth movement of Joseph Martin’s cantata “The Winter Rose”. Based on the prophecy of Isaiah 40:4-5, the chorus incorporates portions of O Come, O Come Emmanuel,…

The Best is Yet to Come

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: November 10, 2019 Text: Haggai: 1:15b-2:9     How many of you all have read the book of Haggai in the Bible? How many of you have even heard of it before today? Well, good news! If you read along or listened to the scripture that Kris so valiantly read with all those fantastic names, you have now made it through almost half of the book of Haggai. Haggai was a prophet who was apparently not…

Our Inheritance

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Text: Ephesians 1:15-23 Date: November 3, 2019 For the last few weeks at Edgewood we have been in the midst of our Stewardship campaign. We have been invited to reflect on all the important ministries our church does and what it takes to make those ministries happen, from our countless volunteers to our team leaders to the financial gifts that make up our annual budget. We’ve been talking about our vision for the year 2020 and…

Communal Grief

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: October 6, 2019 Text: Lamentations 1:1-6, 3:19-26 There is something that happens when a city or community experiences a tragedy, whether it is the aftereffects of a major weather system, or an act of mass violence, or a painful breach of trust with ripple effects across a town or church. There is a collective memory that is held in relationship to this event, such that it only takes a single word to shift the energy…

Trust Issues

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: September 29, 2019Text: Luke 16:19-31 I moved to Michigan during the year of the last presidential election, and it’s hard to believe another huge election is upon us. I have warned Edgewood’s Faith Community Nurse Leah that the blood pressure screenings after worship are likely to show elevated levels over the next 14 months. After living in states like California and Connecticut where my vote only mattered a tiny bit, it’s pretty fun to live in…

Seeking Justice

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: September 22, 2019Text: Amos 8:4-7 This might be the most unlikely way to begin a sermon on Just Peace Sunday, but I promise it ties in. This month is the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the tv show Friends and I have been inundated with Friends references the past few weeks, so much so that I can’t get certain scenes out of my head. Commercials, social media, and even google doodles have paid homage to…

Lost and Found

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: September 15, 2019Text: Luke 15:1-10 Everyone has a story of being lost. Sometimes they are family stories that are told with nervous laughter years later, about young children who wandered away in shopping centers and a frantic parental search that last three minutes, twenty minutes, an hour. Sometimes they are family stories that are not talked about, of relationships that were lost in a rift that could not be bound back together. Sometimes our stories of…