Sermons from 2021

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: December 12, 2021 Text: Judges 13:2-7, 1 John 3:1-3, and Luke 1:46-56             Today is my birthday. If you’re going to work on your birthday, you might as well get to be with everyone you love, doing the thing you love most in the world. Birthdays always cause me to reflect on my origin story. I know I’m not the only one who does this on their birthday – we’re spending a whole month thinking…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: November 28, 2021 Text: Genesis 16:7-`13 and Luke 1:26-38 There is a bit of difference when it comes to preparing for Christmas inside the church and outside the church. Outside of the church we tend to skip the preparation part – we dive head first into Christmas with festive sweaters, cookie exchanges, cheery songs that have been remade and reusing dozens of times.             There is something less sweet and more, well, unsettling, about the…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: November 21, 2021 Text: Deuteronomy 26:1-11             Sometimes people ask me what I do all week as a pastor once worship is over. The shortest and most honest answer I can give is: meetings. I meet with staff, committees, ministry teams, clergy colleagues, church members with questions, church members with concerns, new folks, old folks, young folks, and everyone in between. I won’t admit this out loud too often, but meetings are one of my…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: November 14, 2021 Text: Psalm 1:3             One of my recent joys has been conversations with people who belonged to Edgewood long ago. It’s ranged from people who found Edgewood during college 30 or 40 years ago, siblings who were baptized and grew up here before moving away as young adults, and folks who lived here while working at MSU and raising a family before careers took them out of town. Regardless of what stage…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: November 7, 2021 Text: John 11:32-44             Earlier this week when I went to prepare our banner of the Saints for worship today, the names I took off it were over two years old. The last time we worshiped in the sanctuary for All Saints day was in 2019. Looking at those names and remembering what things were like when those people each died was the thousandth way I was reminded that we have been…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: October 31, 2021 Text: 1 Samuel 28:3-25 Four witches you need to make a coven. Hollywood has more, at least four dozen. Glinda posed the question so long ago: Are you a good witch or a bad witch? We really must know. Moving through time we became Bewitched Samantha and Endora, their noses twitched. About teen witches, there are quite a few Louise Miller, The Craft, and Sabrina come through. You never want to cross…

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: October 17, 2021Text: Job 38:1-7, 34-41 The story of Job was written by someone who wanted an answer to the question, “Whydo bad things happen to good people?” A way, way, way, long time ago people believed that ifyou were good, God would protect you, and if you were bad, God would punish you. It’s a beliefthat still persists, despite ample evidence otherwise. When we receive a difficult diagnosis, westart to wonder if we could have…

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: October 10, 2021Text: Mark 10:17-31 Last week Melinda, our wonderful liturgist this morning, received a check in the mail fora bill she had overpaid. The check was for five cents. I joked that she should remember to tithe10% back to the church, and last Sunday she arrived at worship and handed me a shiny nickel.Little did she know she was modeling today’s Gospel lesson when Jesus tells the man who wantsto inherit eternal life that he…

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: October 3, 2021Text: Matthew 10:13-16 There are many things that make Edgewood a unique congregation, unlike any I’ve everencountered in my very churchy life, but one of my favorite things is that Edgewood has anunusually high percentage of people who have lived in countries other than the United States.From Nicaragua to South India, Indonesia to Cuba, Kenya to Canada and beyond, we are apeople who see ourselves as global citizens, invested in politics, cultures, and languages…

Preacher: Pastor Liz MillerDate: September 26, 2021Text: Esther: 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 This summer my best friend Molly came to Michigan visited us. At night we sat down towatch tv together and did the dance of trying to figure out what shows we were both into andwhat kind of show would be enjoyable for us both. I had previously recommended the Britishshow Fleabag to Molly and she still hadn’t watched it. I was so determined that she would enjoyit that I…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: September 19, 2021 Text: Mark 6:30-45 All week folks have been asking me how my sabbatical was. I should have expected thisquestion. I’ve had three months to prepare for it, but every time I am asked, I find myself at aloss for words. It’s wasn’t one trip or one experience or one revelation…My sabbatical was three months of my life being turned upside down in the best possible way, completely reorienting my daily life, my…

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller Date: May 23, 2021 Text: Acts 2:1-21 Earlier this week I was talking with an Edgewood member about the stories of our shared faith, how the stories we tell again and again are not the ones that are the most factual or proven, but are the ones we keep finding meaning in and can connect with our lives today. We tell stories from our history at Edgewood that keep shaping who we understand who we are…