Rev. Scott E. Hoezee (Hoe-zay) is an ordained pastor in the Christian Reformed Church in North America and has served two congregations. He was the pastor of Second Christian Reformed Church in Fremont, Michigan, from 1990-1993. From 1993-2005 he was the Minister of Preaching and Administration at Calvin CRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the spring of 2005 Scott accepted the Seminary’s offer to become the first Director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching. He has also been a member of the Pastor-Theologian Program sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was pastor-in-residence in the fall of 2000. From 2001-2011 Scott served on the editorial board of Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought and was co-editor of that journal from 2005-2011. He blogs regularly for The Reformed Journal and along with Darrell Delaney is the co-host of the Groundwork radio and podcast program.
Rev. Hoezee is married to Rosemary Apol and they have two children. He enjoys birdwatching, snorkeling, and exploring the beauties and wonders of God’s great creation.
Rev. Hoezee is the author of several books including The Riddle of Grace (1996), Flourishing in the Land (1996), Remember Creation (1998), Speaking as One: A Look at the Ecumenical Creeds (1997), Speaking of Comfort: A Look at the Heidelberg Catechism (1998), and Proclaim the Wonder: Preaching Science on Sunday (2003), Grace Through Every Generation (2007), Actuality: Real Life Stories for Sermons That Matter (2014), and Why We Listen To Sermons (2018).
Scott Hoezee has been writing sermon commentaries for the CEP website since its inception in July 2005.
Psalm 37:1-9
Commentary
Proper 22C
We can probably describe Psalm 37 as taking the long look. Although the Revised Common Lectionary gives us just shy of a quarter of the longer psalm, the first 9 verses do deliver a good capsule summary of the rest of the song as well. The basic message is simple: don’t fret when evil people…
Psalm 146
Commentary
Proper 21C
Psalm 146:9 directly names that famous triplet found throughout the Bible but most especially in the Old Testament: the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. If you read God’s Law and the various statutes God put into place for his people Israel (especially in Leviticus but elsewhere as well), you will see again and again…
Psalm 113
Commentary
Proper 20C
Many of us have been taught that sometimes it is helpful to read passages from the perspective of those who find themselves on the underside of history. This may be especially true of famous pieces of writing that we are perhaps too accustomed to reading from the vantage point of those who tend to come…
Psalm 51:1-10
Commentary
Proper 19C
Even allowing for poetic license, it is a little difficult to know what to do with Psalm 51:6. Despite in the previous verse having referenced what we often call the doctrine of Original Sin—we are sinful from the get-go and thus not only after we commit an actual sin—in verse 6 the claim is made…
Psalm 1 2025
Commentary
Proper 18C
The Hebrew Psalter opens with a beatitude. But unlike Jesus’s well-known Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, Psalm 1’s blessing is not for something a given person is or does. No, this blessing gets pronounced over those who do not engage in certain activities. As beatitudes go, then, this one is rather different. A…
Psalm 112 2025
Commentary
Proper 17C
Depending on where you are “at” these days, it could well be the case that reading Psalm 112 is a little difficult. Sunny promises tumble over top of one another in these ten short verses. Lyric descriptions of all the good things that come to righteous and good people stack up like cord wood. There…
Psalm 103:1-8 2025
Commentary
Proper 16C
As lyric psalms go, it is tough to beat Psalm 103. The RCL is having us look at only the first eight of the psalm’s twenty-two verses but we know this poem stays on high notes of beauty and praise throughout. In a couple of the congregations to which I have belonged the pastors used…
Psalm 82
Commentary
Proper 15C
Some translations of Psalm 82, including the New International Version I typically look at, put scare quotes around the three instances of the word “gods” in this short psalm. Sometimes such scare quotes get called air quotes if invoked by a preacher or other public speaker. If you say, “Well, according to certain ‘experts’ ….
Psalm 33:12-22
Commentary
Proper 14C
When I was somewhere around the age of 9 years old and my brother was 5 years old, my Dad bought us a Shetland-Welsh Pony. We had moved out to the country the year before and so had our own barn and fenced-in pasture. I had said I was interested in having a horse or…
Psalm 49:1-12
Commentary
Proper 13C
There are a number of psalms in the Hebrew Psalter that stray a bit into the biblical genre of Wisdom Literature. And a couple of those psalms in particular work the same Wisdom territory you can find in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Psalm 39 most closely resembles Qoheleth right down to that most-oft used word…
About Scott Hoezee