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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.
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Commentary
Advent 3B
We often connect much of the Christmas season to happiness. God’s people love to sing, “Joy to the World.” We decorate our homes, stores and communities with bright lights. Most of us like to celebrate with both the young in age and the young in heart. This Sunday, however, is also a part of a…
Isaiah 64:1-9
Commentary
Advent 1B
It’s always tempting for those who preach and teacher God’s Word to talk more about prayer than actually pray. So those who proclaim Isaiah 64 won’t just want to explore, exegete and apply it carefully this week. We’ll also want to actually spend time praying, perhaps using its structure and themes to do so. The…
Judges 4:1-7
Commentary
Proper 28A
You’d probably have to thumb through a lot of children’s Bible story books before you’d find a retelling of Judges 4. It’s, after all, very resistant to the kind of moralizing such books sometimes like to do. In fact, even adult readers may have to dig pretty deeply to find anything edifying in this text….
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Commentary
Proper 27A
What’s the Church’s most important task? Some people might answer, “Sharing the gospel’s good news with the whole world,” or “Teaching children to follow Jesus.” Others answer, “Being God’s hands of justice and mercy in the world” or “Being a welcoming place.” Each of those is certainly among the church’s important tasks. But were you…
Joshua 3:7-17
Commentary
Proper 26A
Joshua 3 always feels, at best, somewhat anti-climactic. After all, you might argue the Bible’s first five chapters have all been pointing toward the Jordan crossing it describes. Patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have given their lives to God’s promise to make this happen. The people of Israel have been heading (but sometimes meandering)…
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Commentary
Proper 25A
Few of us can read Deuteronomy 34 without getting at least a lump in our throat and tear in our eye. After all, Moses has dragged the Israelites, often kicking and screaming, out of Egypt, through the wilderness and to the doorstep of Canaan. Yet this Sunday’s Old Testament text reports that he never gets…
Exodus 33:12-23
Commentary
Proper 24A
Have you ever been so eager for something that you’d put your life on the line for it? You may not think so. Yet Moses did. Sometimes he’s close to God, sure of God, “filled to the brim,” as Neal Plantinga writes, with God. At other times, however, Moses feels uncertain, misled and spiritually “dried…
Exodus 32:1-14
Commentary
Proper 23A
Almost all of us have experienced our text’s Aaron’s feelings at one time or another. He’s caught, after all, quite literally between a rock and a hard place. Aaron is trapped between a glorious past and an uncertain future. Israel’s memories of her escape from Egyptian slavery remain as clear as a dry, cool night…
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Commentary
Proper 22A
Comments and Observations When preaching on Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments, there are multiple directions to go in a sermon. It’s a bit challenging to preach on all of the commandments at once, though a way can be found to do that, of course. But for this sermon commentary, I have chosen to ponder…
Exodus 17:1-7
Commentary
Proper 21A
As my colleague Scott Hoezee noted in an earlier Sermon Commentary on this text, a piece to which I’m deeply indebted for several of this piece’s ideas, at first glance this may seem like just another story of Israelite bellyaching to Moses about dragging them out of Egypt. It seems to reveal nothing new about…
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