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…
Matthew 21:1-11 Sermon Commentary
Palm Sunday A
Advent is the season of expectant waiting and hope, but could Palm Sunday be a mini-Advent of sorts? Through the first nine verses, there is clearly a hope and a building sense of anticipation about what is about to happen. Even when the questions come in verses 10-11, they come with a sense that things…
Philippians 2:5-11 Sermon Commentary
Palm Sunday A
In some ways Philippians 2:5-11 resembles taxes and my beloved Detroit Tigers’ mediocrity: each predictably comes around once a year – at least to preachers who follow the Revised Common Lectionary. As a result, this is now at least the ninth time I’ve had the privilege of writing a commentary on this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson….
Psalm 31:9-16 Sermon Commentary
Palm Sunday A
Since the Lectionary each year gives us a psalm each for the Liturgy of the Palms (Psalm 118 most years) and the Liturgy of the Passion (Psalm 31 this year), each year we select just one of them to focus on. This commentary is on the Psalm 31 lection but if you would like to…
Romans 8:6-11 Sermon Commentary
Lent 5A
Parts of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson are somewhat mysterious. Preachers who feel the Spirit prompting us to proclaim its gospel aren’t helped by the fact that by beginning with verse 6 rather than verse 5, this Lesson begins in what seems like the middle of not just a paragraph, but also a thought. Preachers can…
Ezekiel 37:1-14 Sermon Commentary
Lent 5A
Lectionary Connection Chekhov’s Hope There is an adage of storytelling that comes from the world of theatre and it goes like this: any gun brought on stage in the first act must be fired by the final curtain. This is a direct reference to Anton Chekhov’s play, The Seagull, in which a character brings a…
Psalm 130 Sermon Commentary
Lent 5A
As we near the conclusion already of the 2026 Season of Lent, this Year A psalm selection serves up something that is quintessentially Lenten in nature. The entirety of this fairly short song deals with two linked realities: Our human need to be forgiven of our sins and God’s divine penchant to be a forgiving…
John 11:11-45 Sermon Commentary
Lent 5A
Resurrection stories in Lent really catch our attention. But really, the resurrection event is a backdrop for the experience of faith for a number of characters. The most prominent, of course, are our sisters Martha and Mary. The gospel writer tells us at the beginning of this story what happens at the beginning of the…
Psalm 23 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4A
We could perhaps call Psalm 23 a kind of utility player among the songs in the Hebrew Psalter. Here we are on the fourth Sunday of Lent in the Year A Lectionary but by the time we get to late April in 2026 and hit the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Psalm 23 will put in…
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.