Home »
Matthew 23:1-12 Sermon Commentary
Proper 26A
We might be tempted to view this text primarily as a stinging indictment of religious leadership. Though it is as much, it is also contrasting pictures of discipling communities. One builds up brothers and sisters (or students), whereas the other leaves them weighed down and stuck. One surrounds its members with a community of support,…
Joshua 3:7-17 Sermon Commentary
Proper 26A
Preamble: Although this text comes to us through the ordinary 3 year lectionary cycle, it also lands with particularly distressing and uncomfortable timing. As war rages over the lands once given to Joshua and the Israelites, I urge pastors to tred lightly, as I have attempted to do here. First, we acknowledge that the modern…
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 Sermon Commentary
Proper 26A
What we call “post-modernism” heavily influences 21st century Western culture. One characteristic of that worldview is a kind of moral relativism. In other words, the idea that most ideas are equally valuable profoundly shapes our culture. No “word” carries any more moral authority than another. In a post-modern culture that offers a buffet of religious…
Psalm 43 Sermon Commentary
Proper 26A
Most scholars seem pretty certain that Psalms 42 and 43 were either originally just one psalm or that they are such tight companion psalms that you are not really supposed to read either of them in isolation from the other. But here we are being asked to look at only Psalm 43. A glance back…
Commentary posted on October 30, 2023
Proper 26A Sermon Commentary
The Proper 26A Sermon Commentaries include reflection and illustration ideas for Matthew 23:1-12 from the Lectionary Gospel; Joshua 3:7-17, from the Old Testament Lectionary; Psalm 43 from the Lectionary Psalms; and 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 from the Lectionary Epistle.
Related Reformed confession: Gospel Lectionary: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 81 (Lord’s Day 30)