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John 9:1-41 Sermon Commentary
Our ability to take a beautiful miracle and turn it into a trial of belonging is truly a pox upon our people. The idea that people make up stories about our sufferings and judge us is also a reason to be sad. But the hope that undergirds this passage is that Jesus heals, Jesus dispels…
I Samuel 16:1-13 Sermon Commentary
A Moment of Clarity Up until this point in the narrative, the narrator has most often relied on Samuel’s reports of God’s messages instead of, as we saw in his call story (I Samuel 3) God’s direct speech. A snippet of direct speech breaks through when Samuel first sees Saul and understands God’s intention to…
Psalm 23 Sermon Commentary
We could perhaps call Psalm 23 a kind of utility player among the songs in the Hebrew Psalter. Here we are on the fourth Sunday of Lent in the Year A Lectionary but by the time we get to late April in 2026 and hit the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Psalm 23 will put in…
Ephesians 5:8-14 Sermon Commentary
“Have nothing to do with [me synkoinoneite*] the fruitless [akarpois] deeds of darkness [skotous],” Paul admonishes Ephesus’ Christians in verses 11-12 of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. “But rather expose [elenchete] them. It is shameful [aischron] even to mention [legein] what the disobedient do in secret [kryphe].” While that warning is nearly two thousand years old,…
Sermon Commentary From Other Lectionary Cycles
Psalm 23 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4A
On the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we are given a tough assignment by the RCL: preach on Psalm 23, the best known, best loved text in the entire Bible. Rolf Jacobsen summarizes the difficulty of such an assignment. We can run the risk of trivializing the sublime. Or we can turn the sermon into an…
Sermon Commentary for Sunday
This Week's Commentary
Lent 4A
The Lent 3A Sermon Commentaries include reflection and illustration ideas for John 9:1-41 from the Lectionary Gospel; 1 Samuel 16:1-13 from the Old Testament Lectionary; Psalm 23 from the Lectionary Psalms; and Ephesians 5:8-14 from the Lectionary Epistle.
Related Reformed confession: Lectionary Epistle: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 27 (Lord’s Day 10)