Home » Old Testament » Genesis »
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Lent 2B
As any regular reader of my Sermon Commentaries on these Old Testament readings can easily tell, the theme for Lent in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary is covenant. Every one of our Lenten readings has to do with God’s covenant in one way or another, even our upcoming lesson from Numbers 21, which…
Genesis 9:8-17
Lent 1B
As we begin our annual Lenten journey to the cross and the tomb, our Old Testament reading takes us to the new journey of the human race after The Flood. In words that almost directly parallel the Genesis account of creation, the opening verses of Genesis 9 lay out God’s mandates for the new human…
Genesis 1:1-5
Epiphany 1B
This First Sunday after Epiphany celebrates the Baptism of Jesus, that spectacular epiphany of his glory as he began his public ministry. All of the Lectionary readings for this Sunday were chosen because they have to do with water, whether the primeval waters of Genesis 1 or the waters of the Mediterranean that spawn a…
Genesis 45:1-15
Proper 15A
You can’t beat the Bible when it comes to telling dramatic stories in a spellbinding way. Our text for today is a perfect case in point. I’m going to use Eugene Lowry to explain that. In his classic preaching book, The Homiletical Plot, Lowry outlined the 5 movements of classic narrative using 5 interjections: Oops,…
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Proper 14A
We can approach this text from two very different angles. The first comes from renowned Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann. He suggests that this story might have taken its final form during the reign of Solomon, a time of royal splendor in Israel, when everything was going well for God’s people. There was peace internationally,…
Genesis 32:22-31
Proper 13A
When last we saw Jacob, he had finally won his second wife from his duplicitous uncle, Laban. In the ensuing years, Jacob has continued to work for his uncle, becoming a wealthy man because of God’s blessing on his efforts. After a total of 20 years working for Laban, Jacob is finally released from virtual…
Genesis 29:15-28
Proper 12A
If I am Esau, sitting back home in Beersheba, the injustice of my situation is infuriating. I’ve been deceived and robbed. My life has been forever changed by the slippery ways of my little brother. My birthright is gone; so is my blessing. I’m left here with my blind old father and a mother who…
Genesis 28:10-19a
Proper 11A
You don’t have to feel close to God for God to be near to you. You don’t have to reach out to God for God to come to you. And you don’t have to be a perfect person for God to bless you. Jacob is a case in point. We are following the Hebrew Patriarchs…
Genesis 25:19-34
Proper 10A
Here we are, stuck in Ordinary Time. We’ve spent half the church year celebrating the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, but now the fireworks are over. Now we are plodding along through ordinary time. Except this time is extraordinary, too, because God is walking with us each step of the way….
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
Proper 9A
The last time we saw Isaac, he was being laid on the altar by his father Abraham (Genesis 22). It is now many years later. Abraham has laid his wife, Sarah, in a grave purchased from the surrounding Hittites (Genesis 23). And now he has one more item of unfinished business. Isaac is 40 years…
Content related to Genesis