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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 September 19, 2010 "Learning to be Forgiven" Psalm 51:1-12 | |
| By Brad Miller on9/22/2010 1:52 PM | |
| The story we just heard told, it’s pretty much an awful story, isn’t it? There is hardly anything in it that makes us feel good. Hardly anything. Most of it conjures up images of unchecked privilege, power run amok, selfishness of the highest order. In other words, a story of someone who is human.
If we doubted that the great King David was human, this story should change our mind. The stories we sometimes hang onto are the stories of valor and courage, while this is quite simply a story of depravity and sin, on so many levels.
What we don’t know about this story is probably as important as what we do know.
First, why was David at home in Jerusalem while his army was out fighting in the field? There is some reason to believe that David wanted to be with his men, but his generals thought it to risky for the King to be at the front lines. But battle was David’s strength. He understood war. He understood what it took to fight and ther ... |  | |
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| | Sunday September 12, 2010 "Learning to be Merciful" 2 Samuel 9:1-13 | |
| By Brad Miller on9/13/2010 1:44 PM | |
| We live in a cynical world.
And I for one, am tired of it.
I’m tired of it because I don’t think it needs to be that way. I’m tired of it because it makes us look for motives behind the motives. I’m tired of it because our cynicism does not lead us to the light, but to the shadows of doubt and fear.
Let me start with the first reason I don’t like it. I don’t think it needs to be that way.
When we talk about cynicism today, it almost always has to do with politics. Just this past week I had a long discussion with a friend about her deep distrust of all things political, especially politicians. “It hasn’t always been that way,” I said, but my friend was having none of it. Politicians are not to be trusted, she said. Political promises are nothing but lies, she said. Politicians who say they want to help are only looking for votes, she said.
Try as I might, I could not convince her that I ha ... | | |
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| | Sunday September 5, 2010 "Learning to be Worthy" Psalm 37 | |
| By Brad Miller on9/8/2010 1:02 PM | |
| It was a big day in my life. It was the day that I turned in my notice at the university. The day I went public with my plans to leave the security of tenure, of a department chairmanship, of a full professorship. And why was I doing all this? Because I was responding to a call to go to seminary in order to enter full time ministry.
But something funny happened that day: when it finally came time to act, I began to have doubts. Protocol said that I turned in my resignation letter to the provost, the chief academic officer of the university. He accepted the letter, he said, with sadness, but with an understanding of my response to a “higher call.” By the time I got back to my office, the President of the University was there to meet me, having heard the news from the provost. In our conversation, the phrase came up again as he said at least he was glad that I was leaving for a “higher calling.”
By the time the day was over, I had heard that phrase a dozen ... | | |
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| | Sunday August 22, 2010 "Must We Suffer?" Romans 8:12-24 | |
| By Brad Miller on8/25/2010 8:11 AM | |
| Suffering is all around us. Each of us know what it means to suffer. Each of us has witnessed the pain of loved ones dealing with disease or heartbreak or misfortune. And each of us has probably wondered: must we suffer?
In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul addressed the issue of suffering, at least in passing.
As we hear the scripture, let’s put ourselves in the position of the congregation in Rome. We have gathered to worship and are told that there is a letter to be shared, a letter from a missionary in the field. The letter is from Paul, a missionary known to us, even if we have never met him.
Close your eyes and listen to Paul’s words. Remember, if you were in the church in Rome, you would most likely hear once and once only, so listen carefully. I have asked XXX to read part of Paul’s letter to us.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for ... | | |
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| | Sunday August 15, 2010 "Why Did You Change, God?" Malachi 3:5-7a and John 14: 15-21 | |
| By Brad Miller on8/16/2010 1:40 PM | |
| It’s funny where sermons can lead you.
And I’m not talking only about where they might lead people who hear them, I’m also talking about where the sermons sometimes lead the preacher.
It’s a little hard to explain, but this sermon series entitled “Questions for God” has led me to places I wouldn’t have expected. And that is a good thing. The fact is, this series has led to a reaffirmation of why I do what I do, why I believe what I do, and why I want so badly to share that with others. It isn’t that I have necessarily learned something dramatically new, but I have become reacquainted with some important truths, and I can’t tell you how much that excites me.
This week, maybe more than ever.
I think that there are about four different kinds of sermons. I tend to think that some sermons are primarily to inform; they are teaching sermons. Some sermons are intended to provoke someone to action. Some sermons are aimed ... | | |
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| | Sunday August 8, 2010 "How Am I Doing?" Micah 6:8 and Luke 6:27-31 | |
| By Brad Miller on8/11/2010 8:12 AM | |
| So, envision this: you are standing before God, having left this earthly life. How many of us wouldn’t want to know “How did I do?” It gets at the essence of our relationship with God: “Have I lived up to what you wanted, God? Was my worship, my praise, my life, pleasing to you?”
The first time I can remember thinking about this was about 14 years ago when, as part of my seminary education, I served as a chaplain at the Edgewood, a residence for folks who are homeless and HIV-positive. There I met a man named Johnny, about 30 years old, a gentle, quiet man who had a great talent for drawing. In fact, there is a pen and ink drawing by Johnny displayed in my office to this day. Johnny was at peace with his situation, and was what I would consider to be a fine, Christian man.
But Johnny had not always been that way. As we got to know each other, Johnny slowly shared his story with me. Born of a solid family, he veered away in his teens and early twenties, be ... | | |
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| | SUnday July 18, 2010 "Choose the Better Part" Luke 10: 38-42 | |
| By Brad Miller on7/20/2010 9:30 AM | |
| My mother was a doer. All 4 foot 11 inches of her was a human dynamo.
She could be a whirling dervish of activity. Even when she sat down to watch TV or listen to music she was always “doing.” She was a knitter and always had a project going – an afghan, a sweater, a scarf – to be given as a present for someone. One of my most enduring memories is of my mother sitting in her easy chair, knitting needles a blur, yarn being fed from her big knitting bag that sat on the floor beside her. And all the while, she would be watching TV or carrying on a conversation. She just needed to be doing something.
My mother was also a planner. She was, in a very real sense, the glue that held our extended family together. She loved to host parties – at Christmas, at birthdays, for special occasions such bridal showers and baby showers – she had a knack for knowing how to plan and carry off a good party.
From a young age, I loved having all the people ... | | |
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| | Sunday June 20, 2010 "Deep Calls to Deep" Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 | |
| By Brad Miller on6/23/2010 3:08 PM | |
| “Deep calls to deep.”
I remember the first time I heard this phrase, and I was a little mystified. When I was a kid, before we asked the blessing and ate, someone read a devotional for the day which included a scripture and a short reflection. On this certain day, Psalm 42 was the scripture and I really didn’t know what it meant, this idea of “deep calls to deep.” I remember not wanting to ask right at that moment, mainly because I was hungry and wanted to get to dinner, but after the blessing and as we were eating I asked what it meant.
My brother said he thought it meant something “really heavy was going on.” Which wasn’t a lot of help. My father said he thought that it meant that when things start to go wrong, there is a tendency for us to let things go from bad to worse. My mother said she thought it meant that when things are going really, really wrong, when we are in the deepest pain, we call out to the deepest source of hope we know, God.
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| | Sunday May 30, 2010 "Many Things to Say" John 16: 12-16 | |
| By Brad Miller on6/2/2010 9:15 AM | |
| One of the friends I met in seminary, Drew Johnson, could always be counted on to sum things up succinctly and accurately. He was one of those people who didn’t always get the highest grade in the class, but it always seemed like he understood things better than anyone. I can still remember sitting in the lounge at Candler, discussing some of the more difficult issues that arose in our classes and how his take on it almost always illuminated my thinking.
After a weekday worship service where the preacher’s message was an exploration of the trinity and our understanding of it, we were on our way to lunch, both deep in thought. Drew broke the silence of our walk by asking, “You know why we only celebrate Trinity Sunday once a year, don’t you?” I responded that I did not. “Because,” he said, “if we spent any more time than that trying to figure out the trinity, our heads would explode.”
Well, it’s Trinity Sunday. And exploding heads or not, it is something tha ... | | |
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| | Sunday May 6, 2010 "Building on the Foundation" First Corinthians 3: 10-13 | |
| By Brad Miller on6/2/2010 9:12 AM | |
| How exactly did we get here?
There have been several times in my life when I have asked variations of that question. Sometimes, it was out of a sense of frustration as in, “How did I get myself into this mess?” Sometimes it has been out of sense of confusion and despair as in, “Why is this happening to me?” And sometimes, it has been with a sense of joy and wonder as in, “What did I do to deserve all of this?”
Today I ask that question out of that place of joy and wonder, but also, because I really want to understand what happened over the years that brought us to this day, in this place - this beautiful sanctuary - within this wonderful congregation, feeling God’s blessings all around.
So, how did we get here?
Many of us know the story: with the help of the Peachtree Christian Church, a small group of people gathered in a converted house on Colonial Drive on Mother’s Day 1948 and chartered a new church, a mission c ... | | |
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