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Brad's Blog |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:51 AM |  | | From the Desk of Brad Miller |
| Connections | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on8/27/2009 11:09 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful day,
So many things running through my mind…I had a meeting concerning regional church business this morning and when I got back to the office, lots of things hit me: a man who came to the church door just a little while ago asking if he could pray in the sanctuary…a video e-mail from a long time friend who reminded me that even though years and miles have kept us from being as close as we would like, with a little work, we can still be close…an update from a friend concerning her brothers illness…news of the death of Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. I have been surprised at exactly how much each has affected me today.
The young man came and asked if he could pray in the sanctuary, so I showed him in and asked him to come by my office before he left, just so I’d know that he was gone. It is not an everyday occurrence, but it happens fairly regularly, so I had no problem letting him in. When he came to office, he thanked me an ... |  | |
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| | Sunday August 23, 2009 "Where God Lives" Psalm 84 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on8/24/2009 2:35 PM | |
| What is so important about church?
In particular, what is so important about the building we call the church? It is only bricks and mortar. As to the collection of people who call themselves “the church”, what makes them any different from a group of people that gather this morning at the YMCA, or at a social club?
On the surface, there might seem little difference between the people gathered here and at the Y. We have a purpose in mind when we come to this place, just as they do. We enjoy this particular church and if we didn’t, we might seek out another church, or we might just decide that we can just stay home and read our Bible instead of coming to church. The people at the Y also have choices: they could go to a health club, or even buy home workout equipment so they wouldn’t have to go anywhere.
But of course, for those of us sitting here, there is something different about coming to church.
Our Hebrew an ... | | |
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| | Prayer | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on8/20/2009 12:46 PM | |
| Greetings!
A while back I was talking with a friend who was going through a particularly tough time when he said, “I’m finding it difficult to even pray right now.”
It is a place that I have been, and maybe you have been there, too. Overwhelmed with what is going on around us, we sometimes find this simple act too difficult to contemplate. Sometimes it is because we are angry and we feel that God is not listening. Sometimes just coming up with words to describe our situation is just too much. Sometimes we are not even sure what we need to be praying for. And so, in that time when we need prayer the most, we find it impossible to pray. At the time when we would be most comforted by being alone in conversation with God, we are too discomforted to even begin.
Prayer is an awesome thing. But it can be an intimidating thing, too. When we petition God, how do we know God hears us? When we ask for something to be done in our life, is that ... | | |
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| | Sunday August 16, 2009 "Wise Living" Ephesians 5:15-20 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on8/17/2009 9:03 AM | |
| Nobody wants to be a fool.
At various times, Jesus himself told the disciples to be careful about who they call a fool, because being called a fool is the mother of all insults.
When we label someone a fool, we diminish them. When we label someone a fool, we consent to ignore them. When we label someone a fool, we are operating at the height of arrogance.
Why? Because at times, we are all fools.
How’s that for an uplifting message? But you know what? It is a fact. And sometimes, our foolish behavior is the behavior that we think will shield us from the hurt and worry of the world around us.
No, none of us want to be a fool, but sometimes we are. None of us want to behave foolishly, but sometimes we do. As we own up to our foolishness, the important thing to ask is, how can I avoid acting foolishly in the future?
In today’s scripture lesson, taken from the lette ... | | |
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| | Sabbath | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on8/13/2009 8:15 AM | |
| Greetings!
Recently a friend of mine returned from a vacation in Hawaii. When I asked how her trip was, she said, “You know, I told my husband, ‘I really like vacations.”” What made this statement all the more amazing is that my friend is definitely a workaholic, unable to rest if there is something, anything that needs doing. It is a sign of our times that too many people don’t take enough time off, and my friend, while aware of that, is beginning to understand the value of that time off.
During my time away from you I spent some of it at the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis, Indiana. I like the assemblies because they give me a chance to meet up with old friends, to participate in different styles of worship and to simply get a sense of being a part of the “larger” church. But this assembly, while allowing all those things to happen, left me a little concerned and a little baffled. Within the first 24 hours o ... | | |
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| | Sunday July 26, 2009 "This I Pray" Ephesians 3: 14-21 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on7/28/2009 1:08 PM | |
| Today’s scripture is sometimes called “the Apostles Prayer” and is nothing short of a great example of how we are to pray for one another. It is found in the letter to the church at Ephesus, generally attributed to the Apostle Paul.
There is much evidence that the writer of this letter did not personally know the people to which the letter is addressed. The form of greeting and the message is general and not pointed at specific issues and problems like so many other of Paul’s letters. We know that Paul had spent time in Ephesus; there is good reason to believe that he was actually imprisoned in Ephesus, but this letter does not indicate a familiarity with the people of the Ephesian church. But the people of the church in Ephesus knew of his missionary activity. Paul understood his mission to be aimed primarily at people like those who lived in Ephesus. He believed that the mission upon which he embarked was to make Christ known among the Gentiles and to encourage the Jewish beli ... | | |
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| | God of Wonder | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on7/22/2009 3:21 PM | |
| Greetings on this grey morning,
One of the things that seems to fade as we get older is our sense of wonder. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe we have seen too much, understand too much, become too logical, too cynical. Whatever it is, we just seem to not be as surprised or delighted by things like we did when we were younger. Or maybe it’s because we don’t take the time to be in awe of the amazing things that go on around us.
I am willing to bet that for anyone around my age or older, we did share an awe inspiring moment of wonder on July 20, 1969. On that day, 40 years ago Monday, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two humans on the moon. Very late on that day, they emerged from inside their space capsule and walked on the surface of the moon. I can still remember the day vividly, and I can still remember my feeling of absolute wonder and awe at the scratchy scenes that were unfolding on our black and white television set. After years of study a ... | | |
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| | Sunday July 19, 2009 "Promise Made...Promise Kept" 2 Samuel 7:1-14 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on
7/21/2009 1:11 PM | |
| David’s story fascinates me.
Embedded in his story are all the important elements of a great novel. There are heroic acts and selfless deeds. There are power struggles and divided loyalties. There are examples of true friendship and true villainry. There is sex and violence and great public pronouncements and gentle private crises. There is abject failure and total and complete redemption. It really is an amazing story.
We remember David as a boy, the shepherd boy who was tapped as the eventual King of Israel at a very young age. He was the heroic youngster who risked life and limb to defeat the Philistine Goliath, trusting always that God would be with him. Later, he became an enemy of the king and resorted to leading a ragtag band of guerrilla warriors until such time as he emerged as King of the united Israel.
He vanquished the reigning king and restored the people of Israel to their rightful place as God’s chosen. He brought the ... | | |
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| | Do No Harm | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on7/15/2009 12:01 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful summer day!
It’s funny how things pop up at just the moment you need them. Yesterday afternoon I broke my rule about listening to talk radio and was bombarded by caustic comments, subtle and not so subtle putdowns, outright questioning of someone’s patriotism and an absolutely obnoxious discussion/rant/argument about the merits of different college football conferences. And I didn’t have the radio on for more than about 5 minutes! I know, I know, it gets me every time! I should know better, and I have promised myself it will be a long, long time before I fall into this trap again.
This morning, I picked up a book off my desk that had been sitting there about a week. It was a little book that I picked up on sale at the Christian bookstore because the title intrigued me: “Three Simple Rules”. It was written by a minister who had done some research on the 18th century theologian John Wesley and found embedded in his theology what he ... | | |
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| | Sunday July 5, 2009 "Prove It" 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on7/15/2009 11:56 AM | |
| Paul is certainly an interesting character.
Oh, the Bible is full of interesting characters, but none of them are quite so fascinating as Paul. Moses is interesting in his way: a man of quick temper and strong faith. Job perseveres like no one I have ever encountered. Jonah is about as stubborn as anyone could be. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the obedient servant who bears her burden with grace and dignity. Jesus is a fascinating study of what humanity is at its best. But Paul…well, the complexity of the man is almost overwhelming.
Remember Paul’s story: he was born Saul, a devout Jew who made a career out of putting down and shutting up those who would challenge the Jewish leaders, those whose blasphemy could not be tolerated. He had been especially effective at rooting out the followers of Jesus, those people who had the audacity to declare that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead, the messiah come to save Israel.
Saul came b ... | | |
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