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.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Commentary
Lent 4C
Christians might argue that a source of the world’s hatred and violence is our failure to view people the way God views us. Countries wage wars and people launch verbal broadsides against each other in part because we believe that our enemies are something other than beloved image-bearers of the living God. Parts of North…
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Commentary
Lent 3C
In my experience, few verses of Scripture are more often misquoted than 1 Corinthians 10:13. Countless faithful Christians have paraphrased it as “God never gives us more than we can handle.” Yet while that’s largely true, it’s not what Paul and Sosthenes actually write to Corinth’s Christians in verse 13. They, instead, insist God “will…
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Commentary
Lent 2C
Some biblical truths resonate with me more deeply than not just other truths, but also more than those truths did even a few years ago. Among them is this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s Paul and Timothy’s assertion that we “eagerly await [apekdechometha*]” the return of our Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). For me that eagerness is…
Romans 10:8b-13
Commentary
Lent 1C
In the United States across the last decade or so, partisan political divides have been more evident in society than has been true in a very long time. But it’s not just society. Christian congregations have been riven over such issues too. A recent study showed that during and after the COVID pandemic, many congregations…
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Commentary
Transfiguration Sunday C
It may be a good thing that Transfiguration Sunday happens only once a year. After all, it’s not just that Jesus’ transfiguration is even to his closest friends among the most puzzling moments in his earthly life. It’s also that the RCL editors seemed to struggle to find passages outside of the gospels that speak…
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…
About Doug Bratt