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Luke 14.25-33 2025 Sermon Commentary
Proper 18C
We’re continuing on the road with Jesus this summer and a large crowd has joined us. As though to weed out a few folks, Jesus decides to remind them what following along with him truly means. What seems like disparate instructions and examples are actually tied together by one central purpose: look out for the…
Jeremiah 18:1-11 Sermon Commentary
Proper 18C
Illustration: One of the most delightful challenges of pastoring is attempting answer kids’ questions about God. They are unfiltered and haven’t yet learned the church rules dictating what one can wonder, ask or assert about who God is and how God works in the world. (Maybe this is what Jesus intended when he wished that…
Psalm 1 2025 Sermon Commentary
Proper 18C
The Hebrew Psalter opens with a beatitude. But unlike Jesus’s well-known Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, Psalm 1’s blessing is not for something a given person is or does. No, this blessing gets pronounced over those who do not engage in certain activities. As beatitudes go, then, this one is rather different. A…
Philemon 1:1-21 2025 Sermon Commentary
Proper 18C
Jesus’ friends sometimes define ourselves by our relationships to other people. We naturally think of ourselves primarily as parents, children, spouses, friends, employers, employees or students. But this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson at least tacitly invites preachers to help our hearers to consider other relationships by which we ought to define ourselves. The Paul who writes…
Commentary posted on September 1, 2025
Proper 18C Sermon Commentary
The Proper 18C Sermon Commentaries include reflection and illustration ideas for Luke 14:25-33 from the Lectionary Gospel; Jeremiah 18:1-11 from the Old Testament Lectionary; Psalm 1 from the Lectionary Psalms; and Philippians 1:1-21 from the Lectionary Epistle.
Related Reformed confession: Lectionary Psalm: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 114 (Lord’s Day 44)