Commentary posted on June 7, 2021

Proper 6B Sermon Commentary

The Proper 6B Sermon Starters include commentary and illustration ideas for Mark 4:26-34 from the Lectionary Gospel; 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 from the Old Testament Lectionary; Psalm 92:1-4,12-15 from the Lectionary Psalms; and 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 from the Lectionary Epistle.

Related Reformed confession: Lectionary Epistle: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 88 (Lord’s Day 33)

 

Home » June 7, 2021 - Proper 6B

Mark 4:26-34 Sermon Commentary

Proper 6B

Like the message they convey, so also the two parables in this part of Mark 4 are mighty small.  This is no Parable of the Prodigal Son that takes up the better part of a whole chapter.  Jesus manages to convey something about the smallness of the kingdom via two stories that are themselves pretty…

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Psalm 92:1-4,12-15 Sermon Commentary

Proper 6B

What’s in verses 5-11?  This lection from Psalm 92 is one of many RCL texts that clearly skips a certain section of a passage, forcing the curious Bible student to wonder why a chunk gets leapfrogged over.  Psalm 92 is hardly too long for a single reading or sermon.  Yet the Lectionary deletes almost exactly…

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2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 Sermon Commentary

Proper 6B

The end of Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson has taken on perhaps extra poignancy over the past fifteen months or so. That’s partly because, at least in the United States, the global pandemic, political partisanship and struggles for racial justice have added new chapters to the story of what its verse 16 calls “a worldly point of…

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1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 Sermon Commentary

Proper 6B

This old story about God’s choice of David as the new king of Israel fairly bubbles with contemporary relevance, especially in America.  I wrote the first draft of this Sermon Commentary just a few weeks after the inauguration of the Biden/Harris team.  The words of Shakespeare’s witches of Eastwick described the national mood perfectly: “Double,…

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