Sermons from 2020 (Page 2)

Date: May 17, 2020Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Text: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 Video: Virtual Worship Service We are entering out 10th week of Michigan’s Stay at Home order. 10 weeks of sleeping, eating, working, relaxing, crafting, working out, cooking, and distantly socializing in the same 1300 square feet. I have become intimate with every corner and crack of my house. I predict that the trends of open concept houses and tiny homes will soon come to an end.I have been working…

Date: May 10, 2020 Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Text: Matthew 14:22-33 Video: Virtual Worship Service A few years ago Beth and I went to the big island in Hawaii with my family for an amazing vacation. One day we took a leisurely drive around the island and found Ka Lae, the southernmost point of the United States. We got out of our car to explore. There was a big cliff with a setup so that ships could pull up things…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: May 3, 2020 Text: Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7 Video: Virtual Worship Service For the next several weeks our worship will be focused on stories from the Bible where someone’s life becomes unraveled and we get to see how they answer the question, “What comes next?” When the unexpected happens, how do we respond? How do we adapt? Where do we find God or hope or strength when it feels like all of our well laid plans…

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: April 19, 2020Text: John 20:19-31 Video: Virtual Worship Service Being sheltered at home is helping me read scripture in a whole new lens, bringing my new perspective to an ancient text. In the before times, whenever I read this story from the gospel John, I’d jump right to Doubting Thomas and focus on why it was that he needed so much convincing that Jesus had returned to the disciples. But this week I barely noticed Thomas.…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: April 12, 2020 Text: John 20:1-18 Video: Easter Worship At the beginning of Lent, 40 days ago, we started a worship series on prayer practice. On that first Sunday I confessed that I was terrible at praying that involved silence, extended periods alone, and feeling separate from the world around me. 40 days later it feels like I issued a challenge to the universe who created all the perfect conditions to give me a once…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: April 5, 2020 Text: Matthew 21:1-11 Video: Palm Sunday Worship

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: March 29, 2020 Text: Ezekiel 17:1-14 Video: Worship Last October I was in Phoenix with a small group of writers. We turned the city into a writing retreat and spent time in different places around the city reflecting, sharing, and practicing different writing exercises. One afternoon we went to the Phoenix Art Museum. We were told to spend time walking around the museum alone, to find a painting that stood out or connected with you,…

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: March 22, 2020 Text: Psalm 23 Video: Virtual Worship Service It took me most of this week but I finally settled on a metaphor that speaks to what the past nine days have felt like for me. Do you remember the first time you were in a place where you didn’t speak the same language as the people around you? Perhaps it was your first time traveling across the ocean to another country or even your…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: March 15, 2020 Text: Exodus 17:1-7 Video: Virtual Worship Service Wilderness is a frequent theme that comes up in our worship life throughout the year. This is especially true during Lent when, as we mentioned last week, we honor Jesus’s forty days in the wilderness and use this season to explore our own understanding and experiences of being lost in the wilderness. But we often talk about wilderness as an individual experience. We treat it…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: March 8, 2020 Text: Genesis 16:8-15, 21:9-19 On my personal journey to incorporating prayer in my life, one of the turning points was when I started to feel comfortable praying on my own. Prayer transformed from something I passively did in church, or others did and I listened in, to something that I could do by myself, any time I wanted to. Listening for God, or having a conversation with God, became a tool that…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: March 1, 2020 Text: Psalm 46:10 and Mark 4:39 When I lived in New England, I was close to an incredible yoga retreat center called Kripalu. Kripalu is tucked into the Berkshires in Massachusetts surrounded by mountains, overlooking a lake, and serving the best plant-based food in the region. Everything about Kripalu is designed to help you tune into your body and spirit. In addition to the wide variety of yoga that you would expect…

Preacher: Rev. Melanie Baker Date: February 23, 2020 Text: Matthew 6:24-34