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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.
Acts 4:5-12
Commentary
Easter 4B
What in the world got into Acts 4’s Peter? Or to put it more theologically, who in the world got into the apostle? I sometimes wonder if even his companion John didn’t blink his eyes or try to clear his ears to make sure it was Peter who was speaking. Of course, Peter’s talking was…
Acts 3:12-19
Commentary
Easter 3B
When our family visited China a number of years ago, my wife had a hard time keeping up with our sons who all stand over 6 feet 4 inches tall. So we’d often walk a few steps behind them. As we did so, we lost count of how many people passed them, turned around and…
Isaiah 25:6-9
Commentary
Easter Day B
Easter Sunday may not seem like an ideal time to compare God’s kingdom to Isaiah 25’s lavish feast. After all, many of those who proclaim and hear the Old Testament lesson the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday will spend at least some of Easter preparing, eating and cleaning up food. Yet nearly every culture and…
Psalm 31:9-16
Commentary
Lent 6B
The Revised Common Lectionary has two suggested readings from the Psalms for this Sixth Sunday of Lent, Palm Sunday. The first, Psalm 118, emphasizes the positive side of this day with lots of verses that anticipate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The second, Psalm 31:9-16, zeros in on the tragedy of Palm Sunday, the gathering…
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Commentary
Lent 6B
Isaiah 50:4-9a’s juxtaposition of beauty and brutality is so jarring that it may be disconcerting. Yet that combination is part of what helps make our text in so many ways reminiscent of daily life. After all, it sometimes feels as if we’re almost constantly moving from beauty to brutality (and then, so often, right back…
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Commentary
Lent 5B
When I was in Sunday School, we sang, “Into my heart,/ come into my heart, Lord Jesus./ Come in today,/ come in to stay,/ come into my heart, Lord Jesus.” As we sang, we imagined Jesus standing and knocking as long it takes for us to faithfully open the door to and invite him into…
Numbers 21:4-9
Commentary
Lent 4B
Snakes have had, at best, a mixed reputation throughout history. Some people have associated them with healing. A snake, after all, represented Asclepius, the Greek god of healing. The modern symbol of the medical profession is also a snake wrapped around a branch. What’s more, in some passages in Scripture, snakes also have somewhat positive…
Exodus 20:1-17
Commentary
Lent 3B
If we were to poll North Americans about what God is like, most of those who believe in God might say God is nice or forgiving. If we were to poll them about what God looks like, many would answer God looks like a loving grandparent or kind uncle or aunt. How can we know…
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Commentary
Lent 2B
Our names are very important to many of us. We might even argue that they come close as close as anything to identifying who we really are. We are, at least in some ways, our names. Names have throughout measured time had meaning. God asks Adam to name each creature as God creates it, so…
Genesis 9:8-17
Commentary
Lent 1B
21st century society seems to largely believe that people have the world and its future squarely in our own hands. They claim that if we don’t somehow make history turn out right, it simply won’t happen. Yet experience suggests that if it’s up to people to make things right, we’ve got real trouble on our…
About Doug Bratt