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 118:1-2, 19-29
Commentary
Palm Sunday C
The Year C Lectionary—like all three Lectionary cycles—gives us two options for this final Sunday in Lent. We can focus on the Liturgy of the Palms to celebrate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem or we can make it Passion Sunday / Liturgy of the Passion and focus more on the upcoming crucifixion and death of Jesus…
Psalm 126
Commentary
Lent 5C
The first half of this short psalm does not seem to fit the Season of Lent very well. This begins as a psalm of rejoicing and praise, remembering the time the exiles returned from Babylon. Those verses paint an almost delirious picture of happiness, laughter, and people feeling as if their dreams had at long…
Psalm 32
Commentary
Lent 4C
According to the old saying, “Confession is good for the soul.” The psalmist who penned Psalm 32 would agree but would also add that not confessing is bad for soul and body. The psalmist here famously declares that for that season of his life when he refused to own up to and acknowledge the sins…
Psalm 63:1-8
Commentary
Lent 3C
Even in the middle of the Season of Lent, the Lectionary would just as soon as have us turn a blind eye to anything having to do with punishments for sin and evil. That has to be why they lop off the final few verses of Psalm 63. True, there may be some due hesitation…
Psalm 27
Commentary
Lent 2C
At Calvin Theological Seminary for the past two decades we have used as a kind of homiletical template Paul Scott Wilson’s “The Four Pages of the Sermon” format. As some of you reading this may know, Wilson uses what he calls Trouble and Grace as the two primary components of a sermon. Page One (or…
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Commentary
Lent 1C
At first blush Psalm 91 seems an odd choice for the Year C First Sunday in Lent. After all, Psalm 91 is one of those psalms that makes lavish promises as to the constant well-being and prospering of anyone who makes God their refuge and strength. If you are on God’s side, God is constantly…
Time, Chance, and God
Written Sermon
Lucky. That is not a word which Christians like very much. Our mothers taught us to resist referring to a certain person as just being “lucky” in life. Most of us were taught to avoid thinking that once we got out of college, we’d “try out our luck” at a certain profession. We prefer to…
Psalm 99
Commentary
Transfiguration Sunday C
Psalm 99 might seem to be a better fit for the Reign of Christ Sunday later this year than for Transfiguration Sunday. There is really nothing in the accounts of Christ’s transfiguration that point to God—or Christ Jesus—as King. But that is what Psalm 99 is all about. Probably if we wanted to make a…
Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40
Commentary
Epiphany 7C
Psalm 37 is a little bit all over the place. The Lectionary would have us skip 27 of this poem’s 40 verses but to preach well on this psalm, we need to at least read through verses 12-38. And if we do so, then we see that Psalm 37 is at once highly realistic and…
Psalm 1
Commentary
Epiphany 6C
The Book of Psalms begins with a beatitude. But unlike Jesus’s well-known Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount that begins in Matthew 5, Psalm 1’s beatitude is not for what a person is or for what a person does. Instead, this blessing concerns what a given person does not do. Principally a person is…
About Scott Hoezee