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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 |
| Responsibility | |
| By Brad Miller on5/12/2010 3:46 PM | |
| Greetings!
Every once in a while, when I experience something new, or see how something has changed, I think about my grandparents. This may seem odd to some, but there is logic behind it. My grandfather’s both died in 1963 and one of my grandmother’s died in 1965. In the years since their passing, the world has changed tremendously. Sometimes that’s good; sometimes it’s not. But these are people that I knew and loved and who lived in my lifetime. Yet their experience of the world and my experience of the world are wildly different. Just the technology alone would astound and amaze them. Cable and satellite TV, television stations that never go off the air (does anyone remember stations signing off at the end of their broadcast day, playing the national anthem, and showing a test pattern all night long?). Cell phones, computers, air travel that is commonplace, electric cars, solar panels, mp3 players….I could go on and on. But it’s not just technology that I think they’d be in ... |  | |
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| | Remembering Ernie | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on5/12/2010 3:42 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful morning,
Yesterday, I lost one of my heroes. Oh, and I’m not alone. I would guess that millions of people heard of his death and stopped for at least a moment, and remembered Ernie Harwell, who died at the age of 92 after a year long battle with cancer.
Ernie Harwell was “The Voice of the Detroit Tigers” for 42 years, after short stints in New York and Baltimore. In the 1980’s he became the first still-active broadcaster to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is also a resident of the Radio Hall of Fame, the Michigan Hall of Fame and the Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He was the only announcer to be traded for a player! In the late 1940’s, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers wanted to hire Ernie to be the Dodgers broadcaster, but Ernie was under contract as the announcer of the Atlanta Crackers. So, a deal was struck: Ernie went to Brooklyn in exchange for Dodgers backup catcher Cliff Dapper. And the rest, as they s ... | | |
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| | Sunday May 9, 2010 "Are We Different?" Acts 11: 1-18 | |
| By Brad Miller on5/12/2010 3:38 PM | |
| This story of Peter and his experience in Joppa and Caesarea remind me once again that the apostles had to learn how to be Christians, just like we do.
Yes, Peter had the example of Jesus to fall back on. He had been present for the teachings and the healings. He had agonized over the death of Jesus, and had been redeemed when Jesus came to him on the beach in Galilee. But being able to follow closely what someone tells you and actually moving forward, in the absence of that person, is very difficult. But Peter moved into his ministry with vigor and purpose, seeking to serve his risen and ascended Messiah as best he could.
One of the things that we must understand is that as Peter and the other apostles begin their missions to build the church of Jesus Christ, they saw themselves standing firmly in the Hebrew faith. They did not look upon their mission as one that would push their Jewish brothers and sisters aside. They looked upon their mission as celebra ... | | |
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| | Sunday April 25, 2010 "The Easter Community" Acts 9: 36-42 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on5/4/2010 11:26 AM | |
| Have you been there? Have you been where the church at Joppa was? I have.
In this passage, the church at Joppa is experiencing a most profound grief. They have lost one of the best. They have lost a pillar of the church, a much loved woman named Dorcas. She was the example upon which many would have relied. Her ministry, we are told, is to care for the widows among the community. She made them clothes and found other ways which to serve them.
When I read this, I am suddenly filled with reminiscences of so many faithful people, people like Dorcas. Men and women who showed me what it means to serve God joyfully and completely. Men and women who were always there when they were needed. Men and women of integrity and compassion and grace. Men and women who, when they died, left a hole that could not be filled. Men and women that each and every one of us have known.
When I read this I can feel again the sense of loss that comes when ... | | |
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| | Paying Attention | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on4/21/2010 8:49 AM | |
| Greetings!
On Monday and Tuesday of this week I had the privilege of attending a workshop put on by Fred Craddock and Mike Graves called “The Preacher as Storyteller”. It was a wonderfully enlightening couple of days as it always is when Fred Craddock is involved. Not only is he probably the finest preacher I have ever heard, he is one of the finest people I have ever met. We got to know each other when we served as founding board members of the Atlanta United Divinity Center a few years back and I still count that as an amazing blessing. Whenever I get the chance to listen to him preach or teach, I come away with something that keeps me thinking.
On Tuesday morning Fred told a story about a waitress he met at a Waffle House. He asked for cream for his coffee and she reached into her apron and pulled out about 6 of the little creamer cups. He said that he only needed one and she said, “It’s better to have more than you need than to need more than you have.” ... | | |
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| | Sunday April 18, 2010 "The Easter Command" John 21: 1-19 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on4/21/2010 8:43 AM | |
| Over the years, I have found myself in situations where an important person in my life was suddenly absent. Someone to whom I looked for guidance, someone to whom I looked for direction, someone whose presence made it possible for me to persevere, someone who presence was simply comforting.
I think of silly examples of that, like the night my high school football coach suffered chest pains in the locker room minutes before a game and had to be taken to the hospital. I remember that one of the assistant coaches gathered us for a prayer and we headed out to the field, intent on winning one for our stricken coach.
I wish I could tell you it was a magnificent effort that pushed our opponents to their limit. But, it was not a magnificent effort. I wish I could say we gave the winning game ball to our recovering coach, but we did not, mainly because we lost by about 45 points.
We knew what we were supposed to do, but we just couldn’t get it to ... | | |
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| | Remembering | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on4/14/2010 8:37 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful day,
Remembering can lead us to a lot of different places.
This thought crossed my mind this Sunday during Rev. Jennifer’s communion meditation. She said something along the lines that when Jesus said, “Remember me” at the Last Supper, he probably meant more than just, “think of me fondly.” He probably meant that we were to do certain things, act a certain way, as a way to “remember” him. And I think she was right.
It crossed my mind again earlier this week when I realized that my mother’s birthday is just around the corner. She’s been gone almost 12 years and the overwhelming feeling I get when I remember her is one of gratitude. Gratitude that I was so blessed to have her as my mother. Sometimes funny stories pop into my head, times when she laughed so hard she started to cry and then the laughter/crying turned into that weird noiseless laughter that left her coughing for breath. I remember times with fam ... | | |
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| | New Beginnings | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on4/13/2010 1:52 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful day,
What a day we had on Sunday! It was a wonderful celebration of the great gift we have been given: new life through Jesus Christ. The music was wonderful from start to finish; the celebration of baptisms reminded us once again of what it means to be part of the Body of Christ; the baby dedications moved us to rededicate our lives to nurturing and supporting the youngest and most precious of those among us; and the welcoming of a new member lets us know that our fellowship is a vital witness to those seeking a community of faith. It was, in a word, fantastic!
Our challenge, as always, is to not let that celebration slip away from us. I firmly believe that the more we keep Easter front and center, the more we live our lives as Easter people, the more vital and fulfilling our ministry will be to all who cross our paths. Join us in the coming weeks as we seek to carry over that Easter celebration into our work in the community, our ... | | |
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| | Sunday April 11, 2010 "The Easter Life" Revelation 1:4-8 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on4/13/2010 1:28 PM | |
| The New Testament scholar, Lauren Winner reports that one Sunday when she was a child, noticed that there was a typo in the bulletin that got her to thinking. Got her thinking about her faith and how she was supposed to live it out. It got her thinking about the difference in simply living, and living what I would call, the Easter life.
During the celebration of communion in her faith tradition, there was a place in the liturgy for the congregation to respond in unison: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”
But on this Sunday, it said something different: on this Sunday, it said: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ HAS come again.”
She asked about it, fearing that she had missed something important since the last time they celebrated communion.
No, she was assured, it was a typo. It most certainly should say, “Christ will come again.”
She reports being a little sa ... | | |
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| | Easter Sunday April 4, 2010 "The Easter Response" John 20:108 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on4/13/2010 1:23 PM | |
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What a day! As winter turns into spring, our Lenten journey ends with the celebration of the miraculous events of Easter. It is a celebration that opens our eyes and breathes new life into our very being. A celebration that marks the most wonderful day that there could ever be: the day that Jesus rose from the dead and put an exclamation point next to all that he had been telling his disciples, his followers and the people of Israel and Palestine.
Oh, I’m sure the people who followed Jesus were faithful people who believed that God was with them, believed that God had guided them and their people from the very beginning. But there is a difference between believing in God and experiencing the reality of God personally.
And that is what was different for those folks closest to Jesus before that fateful day. The difference between belief and experience.
They had heard Jesus preach and even been able to question him about wha ... | | |
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