Sermons by Daniel Joyner Miller

When my wife was ordained to the ministry two years ago I gave her three pieces of religious artwork. The three pieces are all by the same artist, Joseph Novak. He is a Presbyterian pastor and graphic artist. As an artistic endeavor and as an act of personal piety Joseph Novak chose to take all of the books of the bible and create a single graphic which would capture what he interpreted as the essence of the particular book. What he made are colorful, abstract, and often thought provoking. He calls his works collectively The Minimum Bible…

It’s a cold November night in 1959 and Roger is just one of hundreds of people exiting the Music Box movie theatre on N. Southport Ave. He had gone to the movies by himself this time, he couldn’t quite convince his friends to go see all three and a half hours of Ben-Hur again, for the fifth time. Roger enjoyed the fact that his ticket purchases had contributed to Ben-Hur being the fastest grossing movie of all time, heck it even made him in a crazy way, and he knew it was crazy, feel proud, as if he was a part of something bigger than himself. Ben-Hur was like no other movie he had ever seen. Its 15 million dollar budget far surpassed any other movies. I mean the chariot race alone cost 1 million dollars to make and the life size 18 acre track, which was historically accurate to the 1st century, was the largest film set ever built. Roger couldn’t fathom a movie experience to top this one. Well until he saw it…

The ancient Greeks used to tell a story about an even more ancient society of Phrygia, in modern day Turkey, and a king who ruled there. This king had an insatiable desire for one thing, riches, and more specifically gold. I’m guessing that most of you have heard of this king. His name was King Midas. I know this story is probably not new, but humor me for a minute as I retell the story, trying to shed new light on this old tale. This King Midas, according to one version of the story by the Roman poet Ovid, had found favor with the god Bacchus, god of vineyards and wine. And it was Bacchus who offered the King a single wish. This is the ultimate party game question right? If you had one wish what would it be? Oh and you can’t wish for more wishes, that defeats the point. But seriously, you have one wish. What do you wish for?