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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.
Genesis 22:1-14
Commentary
Proper 8A
I have colleagues whom I respect who tell me they’ll never preach this Old Testament text the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday. When I asked a very wise friend for advice on how to preach this text, he told me to “Skip it.” After all, while our text’s Abraham asks no questions, we have plenty…
Genesis 21:8-21
Commentary
Proper 7A
If only the narrator of the Old Testament text that the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday had just quit at verse 8. After Isaac is weaned, Abraham throws a big soiree. Period. It would have made for a happy ending that would send everyone home happy. But that’s not the way Genesis 21 ends. Pain…
Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)
Commentary
Proper 6A
“The trouble with a lot of religion,” my colleague John Buchanan once said in a sermon on Genesis 18, “is that it is so predictable; there is no room for surprise in it.” He then goes on to quote the theologian Sam Keene as saying that surprise – and wonder – is at the heart…
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Commentary
Trinity Sunday A
Questions about the age of the universe, earth and the human race intrigue at least some 21st century Christians. Some wonder just how God guided the development of creation and its creatures. So God’s people sometimes turn to passages like this Genesis 1 and 2 for answers to those hard questions. However, it’s important to…
Acts 2:1-21
Commentary
Pentecost A
Just before he ascended to the heavenly realm Jesus promised his disciples they’d his “witnesses … to the ends of the earth.” Yet nothing any of them had done or said up to that point had even hinted that they were up to that task. In fact, the gospels consistently portray Jesus’ disciples as a…
Acts 1:6-14
Commentary
Easter 7A
Why do you stand here looking into the sky? is the compelling question around which, in some ways, the text the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday revolves. However, it’s also a question that the Lord might pose to Acts 1’s preachers, teachers and those who listen to us: Why do you stand here looking into…
Acts 17:22-31
Commentary
Easter 6A
How do Acts 17’s preachers, teachers and those who listen to us share our faith with those who know little or nothing about what it means to be a Christian? How do God’s adopted sons and daughters speak the gospel to people for whom words like “grace” and even “sin” may sound like so much…
Acts 7:55-60
Commentary
Easter 5A
Acts 7:55-60 may not be the best text to preach or teach in connection with a church ordaining deacons. In fact, after reading it, we may wonder why anyone would volunteer to serve as a deacon. After all, deacons expect needs that outstrip resources, sometimes impatient needy people and the odd bounced check. But death…
Acts 2:42-47
Commentary
Easter 4A
Some of the Bible’s most intriguing stories involve events or phenomena that are both unprecedented and unrepeated. In those remarkable but rare instances God is uniquely present. However, even those wonderful stories are always only just a beginning. So when a barefoot shepherd stands before a bush that burns but never burns up, God is…
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Commentary
Easter 3A
Peter’s first Pentecost sermon’s aftermath at least suggests that preaching and teaching the Scriptures is a bit like brandishing a lethally sharp sword. Since it can cut very deeply, its handlers want to be both very careful and prepared to help stop any bleeding our proclamation may cause. Reading the lesson the Lectionary appoints this…
About Doug Bratt