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 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Commentary
Proper 25A
In verse 4’s heart of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson lies a perhaps largely unnoticed but most extraordinary claim: God has “entrusted” [pisteuthenai*] Jesus’ friends “with the gospel [euangelion].” No news is greater than that of salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we receive with our faith. Yet the apostle audaciously…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Commentary
Proper 24A
It sometimes seems as if the RCL editors had their eyes not just on the church year calendar, but also the secular one. After all, this Sunday on which Paul fills its Epistolary Lesson with expressions of thanksgiving falls between Canadian and Americans’ Thanksgiving Days. Some Thanksgiving traditions include a variation of the “What are…
Philippians 4:1-9
Commentary
Proper 23A
Paul devotes much of his letter to Philippi’s Christians talking literally about their minds. As we’ve already noted, he summons them to a faithful and obedient reception of God’s grace. However, the apostle also speaks to them at some length about their attitude or mindset. So while preachers might, with the Spirit’s guidance, organize our…
Philippians 3:4b-14
Commentary
Proper 22A
In this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson, Paul speaks extensively of “gain” [kerde*] and “loss” [zemian]. While the terms are largely financial, to Paul they refer to something far more important than money and assets. He employs these financial concepts to refer to the impact of God’s amazing grace on his whole person. The apostle is talking…
Philippians 2:1-13
Commentary
Proper 21A
The proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ always aims to be theocentric. Preachers’ primary goal is, in other words, not to tell worshipers what to do, but to point to the God who graciously adopted us as God’s dearly beloved children. This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson is thoroughly theocentric. While it’s full of Paul’s summonses…
Philippians 1:21-30
Commentary
Proper 20A
Earlier this summer I was summoned to the hospital room of a Christian whom doctors had recently told was dying. Penny and Andy (not their real names) were trying to wrap their heads around the news that doctors could do little more for her than try to keep her relatively comfortable. This news provoked in…
Romans 14:1-12
Commentary
Proper 19A
For millennia, Christians have professed Christ “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” But some of Jesus’ friends have struggled to reconcile that assertion with our profession of God’s saving grace. How and why, some of us wonder, will God judge those whom God has already graciously rescued? Earlier commentaries (https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2017-09-11/romans-141-12/ and…
Romans 13:8-14
Commentary
Proper 18A
In this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson Paul continues his extended discourse on God’s call to love not just God above all, but also our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. In fact, while Romans 13:1-7’s treatise on Christians’ relationships with earthly authorities may seem to interrupt that discourse, it’s actually an integral part of it….
Romans 12:9-21
Commentary
Proper 17A
Most Christians find it reasonably easy to love people who love and like us. It can be harder to genuinely love people who don’t like us. It may feel almost impossible to love people who have harmed us or shown they wish to harm us. Yet this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson strongly implies Jesus’ friends’ “sincere”…
Romans 12:1-8
Commentary
Proper 16A
The biblical concept of “sacrifice” [thysian*] (Romans 12:1) is nearly as old as sin. Genesis 4:2-5 describes perhaps the first sacrifices offered to God by Cain and Abel. Many Old Testament figures, including Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob also offered sacrifices to God. The books of Exodus and Leviticus portray sacrifices as a common element…
About Doug Bratt