1 Corinthians 12:12-31a Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 3C
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson in some ways turns its hearers’ attention away from the well-being of all people toward the well-being of Christ’s Body, the Church. Yet while it to some extent focuses on inward rather than outward matters, Paul does not ignore the “common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). Rather, he implies that the Church…
Psalm 19 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 3C
Law. Decrees. Statues. Commands. Precepts. Once the writer of Psalm 19 switched his focus from the wonder of creation to the wonder of God’s law, he dug deep into his Hebrew thesaurus to use about every synonym for “law” as he could find. But he used this variety of terms not merely because he did…
Luke 4:14-21 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 3C
Jesus’s opening teaching session in the gospel of Luke is divided between this week and next. The division affords us the opportunity to hold off on the challenge that Jesus’s prophetic voice will always bring to us as we listen to him. And in light of the Epiphany season, we can read our current text…
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 3C
Commentary: Nehemiah, in General Since we are just dropping into the text for a moment this week, it might make sense to broaden our perspective to what the whole of Nehemiah wants us to know and learn. The NIBC commentary observes that “Ezra-Nehemiah is the Old Testament equivalent of the Acts of the Apostles —…
John 2:1-11 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2C
Every time the lectionary brings us back to this story, I appreciate the symbolic nature of Jesus’s miracle more and more. Perhaps it’s because I’ve lived another three years and had all the more time to experience the goodness of the Lord—that is, if I was curious enough to wonder where the good times came…
Psalm 36:5-10 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2C
Psalm 36 contains a striking line about God: “In your light we see light.” It is a curious turn of phrase, seeming very nearly tautological. What does it mean that we can only see light when we are in the midst of some other light? It may be a way of saying that we cannot…
1 Corinthians 12:1-11 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2C
On this third Sunday in the year of our Lord, 2025 the RCL turns our attention toward the end of Paul’s first letter to the sometimes-contentious bunch of Jesus’ followers who live in Corinth. Hard on the heels of scolding them about some of their practices surrounding the Lord’s Supper the apostle directs his hearers’…
Isaiah 62:1-5 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2C
Embarrassingly Loved If you blush easily, prepare yourself for this week’s lectionary text out of Hebrew Scripture! After all the desolations of the early chapters of Isaiah, we saw the turn last week with Isaiah 43. Less than 20 chapters later, reading Scripture can feel almost like eavesdropping the sweet nothings of young lovers or…
Psalm 29 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 1C
This is the Sunday to observe things related to the Baptism of Jesus and each of the four assigned Year C readings tie in with baptism. The Acts 8 passage is a little bit of an outlier in that no water is involved but instead baptism is mentioned even as the Holy Spirit gets poured…
Sermon Commentary Library
Our weekly sermon commentaries are Lectionary-based, which across its three-year cycle, encompass a vast array of biblical texts. Filter the Sermon Commentary Library to search Scripture texts by book and chapter to find commentary, illustrations, and reflections to spark ideas.
Looking for something else? View our Heidelberg Catechism sermon resources and our Reformed Connections to the RCL section that traces Lectionary texts to specific parts of the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession.