Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2A
Commentary: Note: although this Lectionary text takes only a portion of Peter’s sermon, this commentary reaches to both sides a bit to make some general comments on the content of the sermon as well as the kind of people/the nature of the church it intends to birth. Qualities of a Spirit-Filled Sermon What does a…
John 20:19-31 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2A
Those Jesus called “brothers” last week have been told the news about Jesus’s resurrection by Mary Magdalene (v. 18) and they’ve come together, not out of hope or wonder, but John says, out of fear. For all intents and purposes, I think that we are supposed to understand that the disciples are in hiding because…
1 Peter 1:3-9 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2A
Jesus’ resurrection, as we noted last week, changes everything. It even changes the way people God has raised to life with him see things. The Spirit equips God’s adopted children to, among other things, love and believe in the Jesus whom we can’t yet see with our eyes. By God’s amazing grace, we trust in…
Psalm 16 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2A
What if we took the middle section of Psalm 16 and grafted it over the story of Jesus from the Gospels? If we did that, what would we see and notice? Consider the following: 5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. Can we read these words and not…
Matthew 28:1-10 Sermon Commentary
Easter Day A
The world is about to turn! It is no longer the Sabbath and a new day and a new week is dawning. I just love that the NRSV describes the time with the -ing ending on dawn. Easter is meant for dawnings. We go from the quiet of the dawn to the shock of an…
Jeremiah 31:1-6 Sermon Commentary
Easter Day A
Illustration: Have you ever experienced a moment when time stood still? Maybe you were afraid to breathe for fear of breaking the magic of the moment. It’s the stuff of hospital bedsides – the passing on of death and the passing into life of birth. It’s the good news of a proposal, the announcement of…
Colossians 3:1-4 Sermon Commentary
Easter Day A
On the American National Library of Medicine website the cognitive therapist Dr. Dean Schuyler reflects on what we might think of as what people often “set” our “hearts on” (cf. Colossians 3:2). “What,” he asks there, “do we think about? “We anticipate sometimes, thinking about events to come. We think about our children and sometimes…
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 Sermon Commentary
Easter Day A
Sometimes I think the Revised Common Lectionary wants to test the creativity of us preachers. Just last week for Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday, the Year A Lectionary served up either Psalm 118 or Psalm 31. Now on Easter we get Psalm 118 again and if you look ahead a little down the RCL road,…
Isaiah 50:4-9 Sermon Commentary
Palm Sunday A
Illustration: America loves winners. We like it when our teams win. We celebrate the victors. We talk about our children’s successes in our Christmas cards and humble brag about promotions on social media. America celebrates winners. And the American church has, largely, followed suit. Of course, it’s obvious in the health-and-wealth “gospel” scene but we’ve…
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.