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Matthew 5:13-20 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
At a restaurant in California some while back I asked the waitress if their cioppino was good. She assured me it was. Cioppino is a wonderful seafood stew, and the server assured me theirs contained a lot of very fresh clams, shrimp, calamari, and more. I ordered it. And . . . it lacked all…
Psalm 112:1-9 (10) Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
About all I can say after reading Psalm 112 is that it’s one thing to wear rose-colored glasses but quite another to fuse those glasses to your head so you can never take them off! Psalm 112 is by no means the only poem in the Hebrew Psalter to paint a glowing portrait of what…
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16) Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
Already on the first pages of J.K. Rowling’s first “Harry Potter” book we knew she was going to come up with a whole little universe of wild and funny things. The first such gadget we encounter is Dumbledore’s “deluminator.” It was the opposite of a cigarette lighter—you did not use the deluminator to light a…
Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12) Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
On some liturgical calendars, we are in Ordinary Time right now. But the Revised Common Lectionary helps us keep the glory shining for a bit longer by calling this the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. The Lectionary throws us a curveball, however, with this hard-hitting text about fasting. What on earth does this social justice passage…
Commentary posted on February 3, 2020
Epiphany 5A Sermon Commentary
The Epiphany 5A Sermon Starters include commentary and illustration ideas for Matthew 5:13-20 from the Lectionary Gospel; Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12) from the Old Testament Lectionary; Psalm 112:1-9 (10) from the Lectionary Psalms; and 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16) from the Lectionary Epistle.
Related Reformed confession: Lectionary Epistle: Heidelberg Catechism: Q&A 65 (Lord’s Day 25)