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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 December 21, 2008 "The Light Breaks Through" Isaiah 9:2-7 | |
| By Brad Miller on12/22/2008 2:13 PM | |
| The night was as dark as one I had ever experienced. Oh, not some “spiritual dark night of the soul”…I mean it was DARK outside. I would guess I was 8 or 9 years old at the camp my parents ran in northern Michigan. It was generally darker up there than in our home in Detroit. There was no ambient glow of the city lights to brighten things up, and generally, that was a good thing. Because without that city glow, the skies were filled with thousands upon thousands of stars and may nights were spent looking for the big and little dipper and other constellations we knew.
But this night, it was overcast and the lights of the stars were hidden by the clouds. When I tell you it was dark, I mean it was dark.
And this was the night my flashlight decided not to work.
The camp my parents ran had two parts. First, there was what called “the hotel.” It was a hunting and fishing lodge that my grandfather and my great uncle had built in the 1920’s, ... |  | |
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| | Sunday November 30, 2008 "Being Advent People" Isaiah 40:1-11 | |
| By Brad Miller on12/1/2008 11:19 AM | |
| Are you ready?
It’s a simple question, that we hear a lot this time of year: Are you ready for Christmas?
Ready! Are you kidding me? It’s three days past Thanksgiving…there is still so much to be done before Christmas! The planning, the buying, the cooking, the partying, the wrapping….ready? Ha! Ask me again on about December 23rd!
This is a very strange time of year for me. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love the ramp up to Christmas and all that comes along with it. But from a theological point of view, from a church point of view, something gets obscured when this season all gets identified as Christmas…or at the very least as the preparation for Christmas.
What gets obscured is the season of Advent, the beginning of the Christian year, a time of preparation to be sure, but preparation for what?
We sit in a wonderful time, in a wonderful place: we know what happened on that night in the sta ... | | |
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| | Sunday November 23, 2008 "Thanks and Praise" 2 Chronicles 20:14-21 | |
| By Brad Miller on11/24/2008 2:31 PM | |
| Thanksgiving is about remembering.
It’s about remembering where we came from.
When Thanksgiving rolls around every year, I can’t help but think of the Thanksgivings past that I spent with my family. Growing up, my family lived basically in two places: the rural area of Michigan known as “The Thumb”, and the biggest city in the state, Detroit.
My father grew up in the Thumb, in a place called Sandusky and my mother had lots of aunts, uncles and cousins in the next town over, Marlette. In fact, my mother, who was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Detroit, actually lived on her grandparents farm for one year in Marlette, when she was 5 years old. That’s where she met my father, at the Flynn Township Red Star School…a one room school house that my father attended until he went to high school.
When I was a small child, we would go up to the Thumb and have Thanksgiving with my grandparents, or my great Uncle Jim and Aun ... | | |
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| | Sunday November 9, 2009 "Laying the Foundation" Ezra 3: 10-13 | |
| By Brad Miller on11/11/2008 10:27 AM | |
| The Book of Ezra picks up where the Book of Chronicles ends: with an account of the return to Jerusalem of the exiles in Babylon. Ezra and it’s companion book, Nehemiah, tell the story of what happened during those confusing times.
Make no mistake about it, they were most certainly confusing times. The leadership of Jerusalem had been carried away to Babylon years before. They had found a new life in Babylon. It was not a horrible exile, a punitive imprisoning exile, but it was exile nonetheless. They were away from their home, away from their holiest temple, away from the center of their religious and their civic life.
Then, in the edict of Cyrus of Persia, conqueror of Babylon, they were told to go home. Told to rebuild the city, rebuild the temple, rebuild their lives. Let’s be clear: this was the idea of Cyrus, their enemy, who reported that this edict was conveyed to him as God’s will. Cyrus didn’t just let them go. He helped them get home. He d ... | | |
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| | Sunday October 16, 2008 "Jesus: The Truth King" John 18:36-38a | |
| By Brad Miller on10/29/2008 9:12 AM | |
| Sunday October 26, 2008
“Jesus: The Truth King”
John 18: 36-38a
“What is truth?”
For centuries, some Christians have sneered at Pilate’s question at the so-called “trial” of Jesus. They have interpreted his question as mocking, but I personally think it is a logical question. In no way am I condoning Pilate’s handling of the situation. He clearly didn’t think Jesus had done anything wrong, yet allowed the temple leadership to have their way by executing Jesus. It would have been nice had he stood up to them in his role of protector of Roman interests, as Governor of this small, backward outpost. But he didn’t, because order was more important to him that “truth.”
I have often wondered, did the question nag at Pilate? Did he every lay awake at night wondering about Jesus’ responses to his questions? Did he carry guilt about washing his hands of the whole matter?
It is a difficult question: “What is ... | | |
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| | Sunday October 19, 2008 "Josiah: The Restoring King" 2 Kings 22:1-13, 23:1-3 | |
| By Brad Miller on10/21/2008 8:21 AM | |
| My mother used to talk about folks who were “good people.” Those folks who were the first to be there to help. Those folks who never sought any attention. Those folks who just lived right. “Good people.”
Have you ever known any “good people?” Of course you have. Some of the folks who fit that category are sitting in this room right now. And a lot of times you see families that all exhibit these traits. When a parent does what’s right and sets a good example for their kids, it’s easy to understand how “good people” characteristics are passed from generation to generation.
But what of the person who does not have that example? What of the person who grows up in a household where bitterness and self-centeredness and even violence are the norm? How do you explain when a child that comes from that kind of unstable situation turns out to be “good people?”
Amos Brown was one of those people in my life. When I was a freshman in colle ... | | |
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| | Sunday October 5, 2008: "David: The Shepherd King" 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 10 | |
| By Brad Miller on10/13/2008 6:11 AM | |
| I’ve known Mr. McDonald my whole life.
He and his wife and kids lived in our neighborhood. They went to our church. His family participated in family camp at the camp my parents ran in northern Michigan. His oldest daughter was in the same grade as my older sister and his youngest daughter was in my grade. Like so many of those folks from my childhood, I don’t remember meeting Mr. McDonald, he was just always there.
But I do remember Mr. McDonald.
I remember that he seemed awfully strict as a parent. His kids had to be in the house earlier than everyone else. There was an inordinate amount of “yes sirs” around him. He was a bit of a yeller, and didn’t hesitate to upbraid his kids in front of others.He was a businessman of some sort. Owned his own company, as I remember. He dressed a little differently that the other fathers who were teachers and line workers and city employees. He was always in a sharp business suit, or well coordinated cas ... | | |
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| | Sunday September 28, 2008 "Asking Too Much?" Ezekiel 18:25-32 and Psalm 25:1-12 | |
| By Brad Miller on9/29/2008 1:03 PM | |
| We don’t pay a lot of attention to the book of Ezekiel these days, but in the midst of this tumultuous time in our history, maybe we should.
Ezekiel was a prophet during the period when Jerusalem was overrun by the Babylonian armies, the city destroyed, the temple destroyed. It was a time when thousands upon thousands of Judeans were taken out of their beloved holy city and relegated to exile in Babylon. The raiding of Jerusalem and the temple took place in the year 597 B.C. and Ezekiel was one of those taken away into exile.
This was more than just an exile, however. It was a well calculated maneuver by the King of Babylon to make sure that it would be very difficult for Jerusalem to rebuild and Judea to rearm.
Here’s how it worked. The Babylonians didn’t just attack, destroy and leave a garrison or two to keep the order. They rounded up the best and the brightest of the Judeans and took them away, to Babylon, where they lived in exil ... | | |
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| | Sunday September 21, 2008 "Our Polar Star" Ephesians 4:1-6 | |
| By Brad Miller on9/22/2008 1:45 PM | |
| For the past several weeks, we have been concentrating on an exploration of our faith heritage and traditions in this sermon series called “We Call Ourselves Disciples” and today we finish with this sermon called “Our Polar Star.”
In the previous 5 sermons, I have concentrated on different aspects of who we are and how we became, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Why is baptism by immersion celebrated? Why is the communion table open to all who come? What does it mean to our life together that we live in covenant with God and each other? Does that fact that we are a non-creedal church impact how we live our lives together? What role does the Bible play in our understanding of God’s revelation in the world?
Now, you may have noticed a thread running through all these topics, at least in some small way. When the founders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have come to a place where a stand needed to taken, where decisions needed to be made ... | | |
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| | Sunday September 14, 2008 "We Call Ourselves Disciples: Gather Round the Table" 1 John 1:1-9 | |
| By Brad Miller on9/14/2008 11:09 PM | |
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As we continue our sermon series “We Call Ourselves Disciples: An Exploration of our Faith Heritage”, I can say with great certainty, that the most famous celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the history of this movement we call the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is one that never took place.
In 1809, Alexander Campbell was struggling mightily with issues of faith, the church and his role in it. He had been raised a strict Presbyterian, but had recently become acquainted with a Scottish pastor named Greville Ewing. Campbell attended small informal gatherings in Ewing’s home where any and all questions were freely and openly shared in lively discussions. Questions of how the church should organize itself, questions of interpretation of scriptures, questions about the nature of baptism and communion. It was a wonderfully freeing time for Alexander Campbell and set him on a lifelong effort to reform the church as he knew it and to restore the church to it’s origin ... | | |
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