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Brad's Sermons |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:53 AM |  | | Archive of BCC Sermons by Brad |
| Sunday March 30, 2008 "Can You Believe It?" Luke 24:13-35 | |
| By Brad Miller on3/31/2008 2:20 PM | |
| You knew this was going to take some time, didn’t you? I mean, let’s be serious: one unbelievable event after another had transpired. If you didn’t witness every single one of them, you would have a tough time taking it all in. No matter who you heard it from, no matter how much you trusted them, if you don’t witness something so remarkably surprising, it is hard to understand what really happened.
Of course, I am talking about the events surrounding the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, his arrest, his trial, his death, his resurrection.
Think about this for a minute: suppose you are a follower of Jesus during those tumultuous days. You’re not one of the 12 disciples or the other close followers like Mary Magdalene, but you believe that Jesus is the one who the Hebrew scriptures have foretold. You believe he will deliver the Jews from their bondage, he will redeem them, he will show himself to be the Messiah that you have longed for.
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| | Easter Sunday March 23, 2008 "Roll Away the Stone" Luke 24:1-12 | |
| By Brad Miller on3/25/2008 9:26 AM | |
| This is the day we have been waiting for.
This is the day the Lord has made.
This is the day we rejoice.
This is the day we celebrate the resurrection. The day when the burial tomb was unsealed, the day the entrance was unblocked and God rolled away the stone of death. The day Jesus conquered death and by so doing offered life to all of the world. The day when each and every one of us was offered a chance to begin again, renewed, whole and at peace with God.
This is the day the Lord has made.
So what do we do about it?
We have arrived at this place along many different roads, but I would hazard a guess that they have not all been easy roads. We have arrived here in need of the comfort of this community, in need of the fellowship of like minded folks and in need of God’s presence in our lives. We have experienced good times and bad; times of despair and joy; loneliness ... | | |
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| | Sunday March 23, 2008 "Turning the Tables" Matthew 21:1-17 | |
| By Brad Miller on3/19/2008 5:49 AM | |
| From the time I first understood that there was something called Holy Week, something has bothered me. Oh, I don’t think I am alone in this; it might bother some of you, too. How could Jesus enter Jerusalem to such a cheering, adoring crowd on Sunday and have the crowd turn against him on Friday?
People have tried to explain it away in lots of ways. But it the explanations all seem to ring just a little hollow to me.
Where was the outcry for the release of Jesus? How quickly could they turn away from Jesus? Was it just human nature?
If we focus on the triumphal entry, and then shift our attention to the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus, the contrasts are enormous, the possibilities for explanation are many. But it still bothers me.
I am bothered by the crowds actions because I am part of the crowd.
And I don’t think I am being too presumptive to say, at times, we all can identify with t ... | | |
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| | Sunday March 9, 2008 "Setting an Example" John 13:1-17 | |
| By Brad Miller on3/13/2008 7:50 AM | |
| “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
I think that may be my favorite passage in the entire Bible. It comes from what I consider to be my favorite gospel, the Gospel according to John. John’s Gospel is different than the other three. In fact, scholars talk about the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke as the “synoptic” gospels, while the Gospel of John is in a category all by itself. Matthew, Mark and Luke are “comprehensive” writings of the life of Jesus that more or less follow the same pattern. John, on the other hand, differs in form and even in function. John is an evangelizer, wanting people to come to know the messiah personally. And in so doing, he is n ... | | |
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| | Sunday February 24, 2008 "Living the Blessing" Matthew 5:1-12 | |
| By Brad Miller on2/25/2008 12:42 AM | |
| When we hear a scripture like the one we just heard read, it is easy to say, “Oh, I’ve heard this a thousand times before. How am I supposed to get something new out of this?”
I think it helps if we approach it like we would any scripture, and forget for the moment that is the opening salvo of Jesus’ most important and extended sermon on Christian living.There are questions I think we should ask ourselves whenever we delve into the scriptures. What is the context, the situation in life, of this scripture? For whom was the original message intended? How would they have heard it? How can an ancient text have an impact on us, in wildly different circumstances today?
Let’s start with the context of this passage.The Gospel according to Matthew tells us that Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan. Immediately following this event, Jesus is led into the wilderness where the preparation for his ministry is begun. It is, indeed, an odd preparation, but it seems to ... | | |
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| | Sunday February 10, 2008 "See How You Like It" Luke 6:27-31 | |
| By Brad Miller on2/10/2008 11:41 PM | |
| My parents had some weird ways of teaching us a lesson.
Take for instance a wintry evening when we were getting ready for dinner.
It was cold and snowy and dark outside and I had just come in from delivering newspapers. And I was not in a great mood. When I got home and went to put my bike away in the garage, there was a bunch of stuff blocking my bikes space; stuff that I recognized as my brothers.So I leaned my bike up against the side of the garage and went in the back door. When you walked in our back door there was a stairway to the basement on your left, and straight ahead were three steps that led up to the kitchen. I closed the door, and seeing that the basement light was on, I crouched down so as to be better heard in the basement. Then I bellowed to my brother, “Dale, get up here and move your junk in the garage. I can’t get my bike in!” At which point an answering shout came from the basement. “Dale’s not down here!” It was my sister’s voice. So, I kne ... | | |
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| | Sunday January 27, 2008 "Praying For The Impossible" Acts 12:1-11 | |
| By Brad Miller on1/28/2008 11:39 AM | |
| The implication is clear, isn’t it?
If we pay attention to this story of Peter’s escape from prison, we are clearly led to believe that there is a direct connection between the escape and the fact that “the church prayed fervently to God for him.”
We want to believe it, don’t we? You know, that God answers our heartfelt prayers. Of course we want to believe it. In fact, there are times when we simply ache to believe it. But sometimes, when we are at our lowest, when danger seems to be closing in, we may have our doubts.
If you haven’t been there, I dare say you will. A situation seems completely untenable and beyond our control. A dear friend or loved one is gravely ill and doctors don’t seem to know what to do. Someone we care about is caught in the throes of addictive behavior and refuses to see the problem. We are desparately lonely in the wake of loss and not sure where to go for a comforting presence.
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| | Sunday January 20, 2008 "The Disciples' Prayer" Matthew 6:9-13 | |
| By Brad Miller on1/22/2008 3:39 PM | |
| Each week in worship we say a variation of today’s scripture. You may have heard it called “The Prayer of Jesus”, or as Jennifer’s beautiful solo indicates, “The Lord’s Prayer.” Both of those are right, I suppose, but 2000 years later, I think it is clear that it is OUR prayer, the Disciples’ prayer. Oh, I don’t mean big D Disciple as in Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but rather little d disciples, followers and students of Jesus. All across Atlanta, this country, all over the world, Christians everywhere, small d disciples, are reciting this prayer as a communal part of their morning worship. It doesn’t matter if it’s high church formal, low church informal, or somewhere in between, hard shell Baptist or Book of Common Prayer Episcopalians, if they consider themselves Christian, there is a good chance they are reciting it this morning.
So many questions rise up around this. Is it specifically a Christian prayer? Couldn’t a Jewish person say this prayer just as easily as ... | | |
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| | Sunday January 13, 2008 "What Do You Want?" 1 Kings 3:1-15, 4:29-34 | |
| By Brad Miller on1/14/2008 5:22 AM | |
| Overall, Solomon’s heart seems to have been in the right place. We are told early on in this scripture lesson that “Solomon loved the Lord.” That sounds pretty good. If people were to talk about you or I and one of the first things they said was “they love Lord”, we’d be pretty pleased, wouldn’t we? After all, it says something important about who we are, about what we think is important, about what we strive to do in our lives.
Well, at least that is what I think it says.
When I think about people I have known that fall into the category of folks who “love the Lord” it is usually because of their actions, their deeds, the way they conduct themselves. They are selfless people. They seem to be always on the lookout for people who might need assistance. They are people of integrity. They do what is right.
Those people who are comfortable in their faith seem more likely to me to be “good people.” Maybe it’s because they know all good things have come to them through God’s grace ... | | |
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| | "What Now?" Luke 2:21-40 | |
| By Brad Miller on1/2/2008 10:42 AM | |
| “What now?”
It’s a common question, isn’t it? After a big event that we have anticipated with great excitement, it is not unusual for us to ask, “What now?” And certainly that is a question that many of us in the church are asking after we have spent the advent season waiting for the celebration that comes with Christmas. And for too many of us, the celebration ends with Christmas.
A former professor of mine is fond of saying, “There is nothing so over as Christmas.” She would point out the great speed at which we could clean out the trappings of Christmas, get rid of the Christmas tree, put away the presents, file away the Christmas pictures, use up the leftovers and get things back to normal, as soon as Christmas was over. And, when that happens, we find ourselves asking, “What now?”
It is also true of the church. Soon, the decorations will be down, the Christmas carols will be a memory, and we will continue on in what the church calendar calls “ordinary time.” And ... | | |
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