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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.
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Commentary
Advent 4B
Comments and Observations What’s the deal with Nathan in 2 Samuel 7? When King David came to the prophet to suggest that he was feeling guilty for not having built God as nice a house as the palace he had just built for himself—and that therefore he was minded to rectify the situation by getting…
Matthew 25:31-46
Commentary
New Years Day B
Sample Sermons Note: This text was also a Year A “Reign of Christ” lection about six weeks ago. So for this New Years’s Day service I am posting a full sample sermon of mine, a few portions of which I utilized some weeks back and so regular readers on the CEP site may have a…
Isaiah 9:1-7
Commentary
Christmas Eve
Sample Sermon: History is full of tragic figures who had great potential, who had perhaps even risen to prominence, only to fall from the very heights they had worked so hard to scale. Often what accounts for the downfall of a leader is the fact that he or she possessed either great wisdom or great…
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
Commentary
New Years Day B
Sample Sermons Most of the passages in Ecclesiastes are hardly the stuff of counted-cross-stitch wall hangings. Indeed, I once read the striking observation that had Friedrich Nietzsche merely referred readers to Ecclesiastes at some point early in his writing career, he could well have spared the world much of his nihilistic blatherings! True enough, which…
John 1:(1-9), 10-18
Commentary
Christmas 2A
Comments and Observations The Lectionary may get the last laugh here, and savvy preachers can curl up the corners of their mouths to join the mirth. Because here it is the first Sunday of a new year. For weeks now, starting well before American Thanksgiving even, it’s been all Jesus, all the time. The Muzak…
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Commentary
Christmas 2A
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider You can’t accuse the Old Testament prophets of not being specific enough when it came to describing the blessings of God’s salvation! Sometimes believers today content themselves with generic or generalized descriptions of felicity in “heaven,” sometimes not advancing in their views of the New Creation much beyond the…
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Commentary
Advent 3B
Comments, Observations, and Questions Among you stands one you do not know.” Those were John the Baptist’s words as recorded in John 1:26. Of course, at that time it was literally true that a quiet carpenter’s son from the backwaters of the Roman Empire was rubbing shoulders with lots of people—including the crowds that jostled…
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Commentary
Advent 3B
Who doesn’t want to preach on a passage as chockfull of lyric imagery as is Isaiah 61!? These words are so redolent of new hope and new beginnings and fresh joy that just reading this chapter aloud delivers more gospel freight than even some whole sermons that are four times as long. Of course, many…
Mark 1:1-8
Commentary
Advent 2B
Comments and Observations Imagine yourself a Kindergarten teacher who gathers a group of wide-eyed five-and six-year-olds onto the square of carpeting in the classroom that is reserved for “Story Time.” You smile into their innocent faces and begin your story. “Once upon a time a little girl named Goldilocks was fast asleep in a lovely…
Isaiah 40:1-11
Commentary
Advent 2B
Today “comfort” conjures up a cloud of images ranging from La-Z-Boy recliners to Royal Caribbean cruises. “Comfort food” is all about the personal satisfaction that can come from mashed potatoes and meatloaf. “Creature comforts” are all about having the nicest stuff even as the words “luxury and comfort” get yoked to describe things like the…
About Scott Hoezee