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Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
Easter 3A
Clearly, Psalm 116 was chosen for this Third Sunday of Easter because it is a Psalm of thanksgiving for deliverance from death. It reverses the order of things in ordinary life, where we move from life to death. Here the Psalmist moves from death.to life, like Jesus in his crucifixion and resurrection. Indeed, Jesus could…
Psalm 16
Easter 2A
Psalm 16 is the perfect Psalm for this second Sunday of the Easter season. The last 3 verses were the text for Peter’s Pentecost sermon, in which he proved from Scripture that Jesus’ death and resurrection had always been at the heart God’s plan of salvation. Psalm 16 is also the perfect Psalm for our…
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Easter Day A
What every preacher needs on Easter Sunday is an angle. Everyone already knows the story, so it is hard to astonish people as the women astonished the disciples with the news of an empty tomb on that first Easter morning. To help people experience that primitive astonishment and the kind of joyful thanksgiving to which…
Psalm 31:9-16
Palm Sunday A
There are two ways to commemorate Palm Sunday, according to the Lectionary. We can focus on the Palms and celebrate a day of victory filled with Hosannas. That was my focus last year (see the Sermon Commentary for March 20, 2016). Or we can focus on the Passion going on beneath the Hosannas. That is…
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Palm Sunday A
Isaiah 50’s juxtaposition of beauty and brutality is jarring and perhaps somewhat disconcerting. Yet that combination is part of what helps make it in so many ways reminiscent of daily life. After all, it sometimes feels as if we’re almost constantly moving from beauty to brutality (and then, so often, right back to beauty –…
Psalm 130
Lent 5A
As we continue our Lenten journey up to Mt. Calvary, the Lectionary puts a perfect Psalm before us on this Fifth Sunday of Lent. We’re getting close to our destination, but here the path takes a severe dip, sort of like a saddle on a mountain just before the summit. This Song of Ascents takes…
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Lent 5A
No matter how gladly we sing the old spiritual about “dry bones” that’s based on Ezekiel 17, we must admit it’s among the most mysterious and, dare we say, strangest passages in all of the Scriptures. Its imagery is so striking that it calls for vivid, poetic language to, by the power of the Holy…
Psalm 23
Lent 4A
On the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we are given a tough assignment by the RCL: preach on Psalm 23, the best known, best loved text in the entire Bible. Rolf Jacobsen summarizes the difficulty of such an assignment. We can run the risk of trivializing the sublime. Or we can turn the sermon into an…
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Lent 4A
God is in the habit of graciously turning grief into joy. Sometimes, however, the Lord does so in startling ways. So those who grieve learn to stay on the lookout for God’s gracious comfort. The Old Testament lesson the Lectionary appoints for this Sunday begins in deep grief over the tragic character of Israel’s King…
Psalm 95
Lent 3A
The readings from the Psalms for this season of Lent are carefully and well chosen. We began our Lenten journey with Psalm 32, which sets the penitential tone of Lent while still calling us to rejoice in forgiveness. Psalm 121 gives Lenten pilgrims the deep assurance that Yahweh is watching over us as we make…
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