John 1:43-51 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2B
Our lectionary text picks up in the midst of calling and witness narratives. After the prologue in verse 19, we start with the witness of John the Baptist (including his account of Jesus’s baptism, which isn’t recorded in John’s gospel) and then follow along as Jesus begins to call his disciples. He starts with brothers…
John 1:6-8, 19-28 Sermon Commentary
Advent 3B
John is asked questions that will also be pointedly asked of Jesus: Who are you? Why do you do what you are doing? They are questions we ask because we don’t understand, or we don’t believe what we’re seeing. It’s important to remember that they can be questions borne by curiosity as well as incredulity…
John 1:29-42 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2A
Our text this week is yet another transition story between John and Jesus. This time, John “pushes his disciples out of the nest” by urging them to follow Jesus, the Lamb of God. We are to understand that John has already baptized Jesus, since he’s seen the sign God told him about: the Holy Spirit…
John 1:(1-9) 10-18 Sermon Commentary
2nd Sunday after Christmast C
There is overwhelming emphasis in this passage on how things “from above” are received here on earth. In the advent season, we remembered that we are actively waiting to receive the gift of the Word in full, and that God is actively at work to bring about his Kingdom on earth. In John’s prologue, it’s…
John 1:43-51 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2B
Sample Sermon: “The Child’s Leading” Don’t you wish sometimes you could have been there, could have seen them in person? I mean the disciples and, of course, Jesus himself. You hear people say things like that once in a while. Wouldn’t it have been something to have been able to meet Peter, to shake Matthew’s…
John 1:(1-9), 10-18 Sermon Commentary
Christmas 2B
As we come to the first Sunday of 2021, most of us are only too glad to have left 2020 behind. If on New Year’s Eve a year ago we toasted the happy arrival of a new year, this past week we probably did less of a toast to welcome 2021 and offered up instead…
John 1:6-8, 19-28 Sermon Commentary
Advent 3B
“Among you stands one you do not know.” Those were John the Baptist’s words as recorded in John 1:26. Of course, at that time it was literally true that a quiet carpenter’s son from the backwaters of the Roman Empire was rubbing shoulders with lots of people—including the crowds that jostled together at the banks…
John 1:29-42 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 2A
The lamb of God. Agnus Dei. The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Agnus Dei tolle peccato mundi. It is so familiar to us. Even if you Google that Latin phrase Agnus Dei, you instantly get over 10 million hits. And that’s in Latin! (Maybe these days quid quo pro…
John 1:(1-9), 10-18 Sermon Commentary
Christmas 2A
The Lectionary may get the last laugh here, and savvy preachers can curl up the corners of their mouths to join the mirth. Because here it is the first Sunday of a new year and really the first Sunday in the 2019-2020 holiday season after Christmas is officially finished. For weeks now, starting well before…
Sermon Commentary Library
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