Exodus 24:12-18 Sermon Commentary
Transfiguration Sunday
Worship Connection Transfiguration Sunday offers a bridge every year from Epiphany, the season of light, to Lent, the season of Ash. What light and ash have in common is fire, which creates both. Although the Transfiguration Gospel text from Matthew doesn’t name fire as an element in the Transfiguration of Christ, many of the images…
Matthew 17:1-9 Sermon Commentary
Transfiguration Sunday
There is plenty of reason for Peter and the other disciples to misread the situation on the mountaintop because there is a lot that is eerily reminiscent of key experiences from their people’s story. The legacy lives in their bones and even if they weren’t there, what happened at these holy places is carried in…
2 Peter 1:16-21 Sermon Commentary
Transfiguration Sunday
At first glance this Sunday may seem like a less than ideal Sunday on which to explore what its Epistolary Lesson has to say about the doctrine of inspiration. While, after all, the North American church generally pays little attention to Jesus’ transfiguration, this Transfiguration Sunday gives Jesus’ followers a chance to think about it…
Psalm 99 Sermon Commentary
Transfiguration Sunday
The Lectionary gives us two choices for a psalm lection on Transfiguration Sunday in Year A. Both Psalm 2 and Psalm 99 work the same side of the street in terms of celebrating God as the ultimate King and then also the kings of Israel in Jerusalem who are God’s chosen representatives, who serve as…
Isaiah 58:1-12 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
Because I prepare about a month early, I am reading these words against the backdrop of ICE raids, of terrorized people and extrajudicial killing in detention facilities and on the streets of Minneapolis. As I settled into my seat to review the text before diving into commentaries, I read these words and my body tensed,…
Psalm 112:1-9 (10) Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
It’s never terribly clear to me just what it means when the Revised Common Lectionary puts a single verse in parentheses. It’s the final verse, verse 10, of Psalm 112 that gets that treatment. Maybe it’s meant to say “Include it in your sermon or don’t—it’s up to you.” They are not skipping that verse…
Matthew 5:13-20 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
How does salt lose its saltiness? Thinking about the salt as it is, one of the ways it will lose its potency is by diluting it, say in a large amount of water. As the salt dissolves and has more and more water added to it, its saltiness won’t be as strong. Or, salt that…
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16) Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5A
In last week’s Epistolary Lesson commentary I suggested that preachers who feel called to proclaim 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 might consider entitling their message “Good News for Ordinary Christians.” This week I’d offer that preachers who proclaim 1 Corinthians 2 might consider entitling their message “Good News for Ordinary Gospel Proclaimers.” The faithful proclamation of the…
Psalm 15 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 4A
It’s a pretty tall order spiritually speaking. The job description for the person who can dwell in God’s sacred place stacks up pretty fast and in the end sketches an ideal and nearly perfect person. Indeed, when we read this, the thought all-but inevitably occurs to us that really, the only person who ever fit…
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.