Rev. Douglas Bratt is a Minister of the Word in the Christian Reformed Church in North America. After serving Christian Reformed churches in Iowa, Michigan and Maryland, he retired in July, 2024. He enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, reading good literature, and watching televised sports in his free time.
Doug began writing sermon commentaries for the CEP website in 2006 and started writing weekly in 2012.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50
Commentary
Epiphany 7C
The Scriptures’ “perspicuity” is for some Christians a familiar but sometimes misunderstood concept. By it Jesus’ followers basically mean that the Holy Spirit makes clear what God wants to communicate through the Scriptures to God’s people and world. So we sometimes say the Spirit makes perspicuous the Scriptures’ central truths like God’s creation of everything…
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Commentary
Epiphany 6C
In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul refers to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as being “of first importance.” Christians generally assume that the primary importance is to our faith that receives God’s grace. But this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson suggests that Christ’s resurrection in particular is also central to our hope for life, including life after death….
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Commentary
Epiphany 5C
1 Corinthians 15’s stirring recap of Christ’s resurrection and its impact is one of the great chapters of Scripture. This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s portion of it introduces Paul’s teaching about the coming resurrection of Jesus’ followers. Countless preachers and others used it to proclaim Christian hope in face of dying and death. But toward the…
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Commentary
Epiphany 4C
Have you ever wondered why Paul calls love the “greatest [meizon*] of these” (13:13)? Why did the Spirit inspire him to refer to the gift of love as even greater than the great gifts of faith and hope? After all, while love is great, faith is God’s great gift that equips us to receive God’s…
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Commentary
Epiphany 3C
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson in some ways turns its hearers’ attention away from the well-being of all people toward the well-being of Christ’s Body, the Church. Yet while it to some extent focuses on inward rather than outward matters, Paul does not ignore the “common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). Rather, he implies that the Church…
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Commentary
Epiphany 2C
On this third Sunday in the year of our Lord, 2025 the RCL turns our attention toward the end of Paul’s first letter to the sometimes-contentious bunch of Jesus’ followers who live in Corinth. Hard on the heels of scolding them about some of their practices surrounding the Lord’s Supper the apostle directs his hearers’…
Acts 8:14-17
Commentary
Epiphany 1C
While baptism is among the most central practices of the Christian faith, it also remains among Christianity’s most divisive issues. Baptism is one of the two sacraments that Protestant Christians recognize. Yet Jesus’ followers remain deeply divided about especially when and how it should be administered. It’s perhaps disappointing, then, that on this Sunday on…
Ephesians 1:3-14
Commentary
Christmas 2C
On this Sunday on which most people stand just inside the doorway to a new year, many of us naturally look ahead to the future. 2024 is already to many of us “so last year.” We’re ready to seize the moment and plunge ahead. But Ephesians 1 invites Jesus’ friends to slow down enough to…
Colossians 3:12-17
Commentary
Christmas 1C
Few phrases naturally come more slowly to children’s lips than, “Thank you.” As a result, diligent parents must spend a great deal of time persistently teaching their sons and daughters to express their gratitude. In fact, few of us need to think farther back than the course of this past month to remember how often…
Hebrews 10:5-10
Commentary
Advent 4C
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson offers preachers one more opportunity to publicly reflect on how God comes to us in the here and now. Hebrews’ author, after all, professes in verse 10 that “we have been made holy [hagiasmenoi*] through the sacrifice [prosphoras] of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [ephapax].” On this last…
About Doug Bratt