Commentary posted on January 2, 2017

Epiphany 1A Sermon Commentary

 

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Matthew 3:13-17 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 1A

Poor John. It didn’t look right. What was going on here?  This was not the public appearance of Jesus that John had set everyone up to see (cf. Matthew 3:1-12 for goodness sake!!!). As Matthew 3 ends, you can almost picture John the Baptist carrying on with the rest of that day’s baptisms with a…

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Psalm 29 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 1A

Anyone who regularly preaches on the Lectionary knows all too well that the there are times when the choice of readings doesn’t make sense.  That is not the case for this First Sunday after Epiphany when we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus.  The “main” reading from the Gospels is, of course, about the baptism of…

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Acts 10:34-43 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 1A

It beats me why the Lectionary—on a Sunday celebrating the baptism of Jesus—cuts this reading off at verse 43 just BEFORE there is a wonderful scene of baptism in Acts 10.  In fact, I was so sure it was a typo on the one Lectionary site I consult each week that I looked up the…

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Isaiah 42:1-9 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 1A

Christians are sometimes prone to hurdle the Old Testament’s original context in order to sprint to the finish line that is the Jesus to whom it points.  We always want, after all, to preach and teach Christ and him crucified. So preachers and teachers sometimes treat texts like Isaiah 42 as little more than an…

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