Sermons from 2019

Sermons from 2019

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,…

Peace Can’t Wait

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: December 8, 2019 Text: Isaiah 11:1-10, Matthew 3:1-12 What can’t wait? In this season of anticipation, waiting, and preparing, what can’t wait? Last Sunday we reflected on needing hope in our world right now, not being able to wait for hope any longer. We named hope as transformative resistance of despair.  And now, at the beginning of the second week of Advent, we turn to Peace. I’m not talking about the peace that comes when…

Hope Can’t Wait

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: December 2, 2019 Text: Isaiah 2:1-5 Sometimes – and maybe not everyone feels this way- but sometimes, it feels like we don’t know what to do with Advent. It’s a season of anticipation, of reflection, and of waiting for Christ to be born. But what does anticipation and waiting look like in real life? How do we practice that and experience it together? There were times in the church’s history when we understood waiting more…

Send Me?

Guest Speakers: Marcia & Harold BeerDate: November 17, 2019Text: 1 Kings 19:11-13 Marcia: As I reflect on my life, I see so clearly the turning points. Those moments of my life when unexpected opportunities opened up and my best laid plans got derailed. The growing edge as Howard Thurman would say. Through each event, I learned something new, experienced life in a new way, and learned to trust while my faith grew. I’ve had a lot of practice with flexibility…

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…

The Age of Opportunities

Preacher: Rev. Lynn Casteel-Harper, Minister for Older Adults at The Riverside Church in the City of New York Date: October 27, 2019 Text: Genesis 12:1-9 Quote: “May I suggest that [human] potential for change and growth is much greater than we are willing to admit and that old age be regarded not as the age of stagnation but as the age of opportunities for inner growth?”—Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in “To Grow in Wisdom” This past June, a group of…

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…