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 19
Commentary
Epiphany 3C
Law. Decrees. Statues. Commands. Precepts. Once the writer of Psalm 19 switched his focus from the wonder of creation to the wonder of God’s law, he dug deep into his Hebrew thesaurus to use about every synonym for “law” as he could find. But he used this variety of terms not merely because he did…
Psalm 36:5-10
Commentary
Epiphany 2C
Psalm 36 contains a striking line about God: “In your light we see light.” It is a curious turn of phrase, seeming very nearly tautological. What does it mean that we can only see light when we are in the midst of some other light? It may be a way of saying that we cannot…
Psalm 29
Commentary
Epiphany 1C
This is the Sunday to observe things related to the Baptism of Jesus and each of the four assigned Year C readings tie in with baptism. The Acts 8 passage is a little bit of an outlier in that no water is involved but instead baptism is mentioned even as the Holy Spirit gets poured…
Psalm 147:12-20
Commentary
Christmas 2C
It’s not at all clear why the Lectionary skips the first 11 verses of the 147th psalm since they contain much of the same sentiments and ideas as the final verses that the RCL does select. In any event, this is one of a number of psalms and other biblical passages where the psalmist takes…
Psalm 148
Commentary
Christmas 1C
Whether it is Lectionary Year A, B, or C, if it’s the first Sunday after Christmas, you will see Psalm 148 as the psalm reading. Somebody along the way must have determined that this is such a fitting post-Christmas Day psalm that no Lectionary cycle would be complete without it. Many years that Sunday is…
Psalm 80:1-7
Commentary
Advent 4C
If you pay close attention to the Psalm readings across the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary, then you know the Lectionary likes Psalm 80. But it never manages to assign the whole psalm. Either you get just the first seven verses (as here for Advent 4C) or nine verses from the middle of…
Isaiah 12:2-6
Commentary
Advent 3C
For the second Sunday in a row the Year C Advent Lectionary does not have an actual Psalm assigned but instead another psalm-like passage. Last week it was Zechariah’s song from Luke 1 and today on this Third Advent Sunday it is a lyric passage from Isaiah 12. This chapter of course follows on the…
Luke 1:68-79
Commentary
Advent 2C
We could call it Psalm 151. Because that is what Zechariah’s song sounds like. Not only does it sound like some of the actual 150 psalms in the Hebrew Psalter, it sounds very much like an Old Testament passage even though it is of course in the New Testament (which may be why the Year…
Psalm 25:1-10
Commentary
Advent 1C
The Revised Common Lectionary likes the first 10 or so verses of the 25th Psalm. Psalm 25:1-9 or 1-10 occur at least once each in Years A, B, and C. The last time we saw this was earlier in 2024 when these exact same verses were assigned for the First Sunday in Lent in Year…
Psalm 93
Commentary
Proper 29B
What a lot gets packed into these five short verses of the 93rd Psalm! This poem is an obvious choice for Christ the King / Reign of Christ Sunday as we close out another liturgical year and conclude the Year B cycle of the Lectionary. The whole psalm is about the nature of God as…
About Scott Hoezee