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| Hard Work: Big Results | Brad's Blog Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on3/25/2009 2:31 PM | |
| Greetings on the waiting to rain day….
How is your Lenten journey going? Have you had any “aha” moments? Have you been able to incorporate more of the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation into your daily life? Are you ready for it to be over?
Well, it will be in the not too distant future, but don’t wish this time away. A few weeks ago in worship I said “I love Lent.” I was surprised at the reactions I got: some who thought I was crazy (but, hey that could be for any number of reasons!), some who talked to me earnestly about their difficulties with Lent, but who were committed to doing their best to do the hard work in front of them. I heard from people who said that they never really thought of Lent as being much different from any other time of the year, and finally I even heard from a couple of you who understood what I meant and agreed with me!
But for those who didn’t understand what I meant, let me try and elaborate. ... |  | |
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| | Sunday March 22, 2009 "Sacred Living" John 3:14-21 | | Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on3/23/2009 12:35 PM | |
| For God so loved the world…
It is a phrase we hear often, and because we hear it so often, we sometimes don’t give it the attention we should. It comes from John 3:16 and I would hazard a guess that for most of us who grew up in the church, that was the first verse we ever memorized,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”
For quite awhile beginning in the 1970’s, just about every televised sporting event included someone in the crowd with a rainbow colored wig and a posterboard that said simply “John 3:16” The idea was, anyone who didn’t know the reference would go to their Bible and read this wonderful verse. And it is a wonderful verse. It encapsulates the basic reason that Jesus came to live among us, and it gives voice to what the reward will be for those who follow Jesus.
But too often we concentrate so heavily on the ... | | |
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| | It's that time of year again... | | Brad's Blog
| By Brad Miller on3/17/2009 2:55 PM | |
| Greetings,
You may be thinking, “Wow…Wednesday came quickly this week.” Not exactly. Tomorrow I have been summoned to report for jury duty in DeKalb County, and barring a last minute reprieve (man, you’d think I was the one on trial) I will be at the DeKalb County Courthouse tomorrow. So, I thought I’d get this out a little early.
This is a really special time of the year. Easter is not far off, the trees are starting to bud, the flowers are starting to make their presence known, and most importantly, before we know it BASEBALL will be back in town. (Okay, for those of you who haven’t guessed it, this is my annual baseball missive and after you read this, I promise you won’t hear much more about it this year – unless of course, the Detroit Tigers are good!)
In getting ready for last week’s sermon I was thinking of all the “sacred places” in my life and the ones that I highlighted in the sermon were home, the church sanctuary and our co ... | | |
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| | "The Church Together" | | Brad's BlogMid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on3/17/2009 10:00 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful day,
Last week I had lunch with someone who has been visiting the church for a while. He sat in on the board meeting after worship on February 28th to learn about possible building renovations and debt reduction and when I asked what he though he replied, “You know, in the past when I heard the word ‘church’ I would think of the building. Since coming to Brookhaven, I now know that the real ‘church’ is the people that make it up.”
Of course, he was right, it was just sort of odd that it came up when were talking about a meeting that specifically addressed some concerns for our physical plant! And he wasn’t trying to say that the building wasn’t important or didn’t matter. I think he was saying that the board meeting personified what it meant to be the church: thoughtful people, all working in the best interest of the ministry of Jesus Christ, all striving to find the best answers to questions, no matter if the topic was spiritual o ... | | |
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| | Sunday March 15, 2009 "Sacred Space" John 2: 13-22 | | Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on3/17/2009 9:55 AM | |
| In the Galilean countryside, on the banks of the Sea of Galilee is a place called “The Primacy of Peter.” Tradition says that this is the place where the resurrected Jesus called to his disciples from the beach, instructed them where to throw their nets for the biggest catch possible, and then, made breakfast for them at daybreak.
Today there is a pretty little chapel very near the beach. Up a small path sit several small outdoor worship areas, places where pilgrims can share communion and feel the presence of Jesus. Mounted on a rock about half way between the chapel and the beach is a simple sign, “This is holy ground.”
When I stood in front of that sign almost 2 years ago, I thought to myself, “Of course it is.”
Just what makes a place “holy” or “sacred?” It’s not as easy to answer that question as it first seems. Maybe by thinking about spaces that are sacred to us we might see some commonalities and be better able to answer tha ... | | |
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| | Heavenly Vision | | Brad's BlogMid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on3/11/2009 10:15 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful pre-spring day!
One of the daily devotionals that I use is a classic written by Oswald Chambers called “My Utmost for His Highest.” Chambers wrote the original edition of this devotional in 1935 and over the years it has been updated to reflect changes in language, but through it all, editors have tried very hard to keep Chambers original intentions and thoughts intact. They have done a great job and it is volume that I would heartily recommend.
This morning the very first paragraph of the devotion hit me square between the eyes: “If we lose the ‘heavenly vision’ God has given us, we alone are responsible – not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest – our best for His glory…the acid test ... | | |
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| | Sunday March 8, 2009 "Sacred Calling" Mark 8:31-38 | | Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on3/9/2009 12:45 PM | |
| In his book “Whistling in the Dark”, Frederick Buechner posits that after his baptism, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness asking himself what it meant to be Jesus. And in a similar way, Christians use the 40 days of Lent to ask themselves what it means to be Christians.
That is is why I love Lent.
Now, there’s a sentence you hear don’t very often: I love Lent. A good friend of mine who is also a minister once lamented to me that he was sick and tired of all the dreary, mournful, soul searching of Lent. “Don’t people know that Easter is coming?” he asked. “Why can’t we have a little more celebration during Lent?”
He’s right of course. Easter is coming. For that we are grateful and we will most definitely celebrate come Easter morning.
But I disagree with part of his premise. The fact is, Easter cannot be truly appreciated unless we use the season of Lent to try our best to understand what it all means. If it is all sweet ... | | |
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| | True Lenten Fasting | | Brad's BlogMid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on2/25/2009 12:50 PM | |
| Greetings on this wonderful Ash Wednesday morning,
Yes, it is hard to believe but Ash Wednesday is here and that means that we are now at the start of our Lenten journey for 2009. It is a journey we take every year, and our sincere hope is that each time we focus on our Lenten disciplines of introspection, prayer and study, we come closer and closer to being who God would have us be while strengthening our relationship with Jesus Christ. It says something about our humanness that we NEED to do this over and over again, year after year, Lent after Lent. It also says something about our grace filled God that we GET to do this over and over again, year after year, Lent after Lent.
Several years ago I came across an anonymous piece called “True Lenten Fasting” which I have used as a guide ever since. I have shared it with you before, but I would like to do so again so that you might put it on your refrigerator, or inside your Bible, or somewhere where you’ll see ... | | |
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| | Peanut Butter Crisis | | Brad's BlogMid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on2/24/2009 3:58 PM | |
| Greetings on this chilly morning,
As if the news about the economy, job layoffs, plant shut downs, industry collapses and the like wasn’t enough. Now they are saying I have to get rid of my peanut butter! Will it never end, this cycle of bad news? Will we ever be able to eat that Snickers bar or dig into a fresh jar of Jif without wondering about our safety? Will I have to check packaging to see if anything I buy was made on machines that also processed peanuts? What will become of Mr. Peanut? Will he become destitute, with a soiled top hat and a broken cane, his monocle scotch taped together, living out his days with people staring and whispering, “What a shame. He used to be somebody, I just can’t remember who.”
Well, I for one am not going to take it. We can argue about how much CEO’s make, and whether or not socialized medicine is the way to go. We can talk about the billions that are needed to shore up our economy, our housing market. We can debate ... | | |
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| | Sunday February 22, 2009 "The Mantle Passes" 2 Kings 2:1-14 | | Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on2/24/2009 3:52 PM | |
| Today is traditionally celebrated as “Tranfiguration Sunday” in the more liturgical churches. It celebrates the episode in Jesus’ ministry when he took his disciples Peter James and John with him up to a high mountain top. While on the mountain top, Jesus was transfigured, his clothes becoming a dazzling white. And suddenly appearing at Jesus side, in conversation with him, are Moses and Elijah! As the terrified disciples looked on, a voice came from the heavens saying, “This is my Son, the beloved, listen to him!”
And just as suddenly as the transfiguration came, it was over, leaving Peter, James, John and Jesus alone on the top of the mountain.
It is not entirely clear where this high mountain is, but tradition points to Mt. Tabor, not far from Nazareth as the site of the Transfiguration. During my pilgrimage to Palestine and Israel, several of us hiked up to the top of Mt. Tabor to experience some small part of what the disciples experienced. As we read f ... | | |
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