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…
John 9:1-41 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4A
Our ability to take a beautiful miracle and turn it into a trial of belonging is truly a pox upon our people. The idea that people make up stories about our sufferings and judge us is also a reason to be sad. But the hope that undergirds this passage is that Jesus heals, Jesus dispels…
Ephesians 5:8-14 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4A
“Have nothing to do with [me synkoinoneite*] the fruitless [akarpois] deeds of darkness [skotous],” Paul admonishes Ephesus’ Christians in verses 11-12 of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. “But rather expose [elenchete] them. It is shameful [aischron] even to mention [legein] what the disobedient do in secret [kryphe].” While that warning is nearly two thousand years old,…
I Samuel 16:1-13 Sermon Commentary
Lent 4A
A Moment of Clarity Up until this point in the narrative, the narrator has most often relied on Samuel’s reports of God’s messages instead of, as we saw in his call story (I Samuel 3) God’s direct speech. A snippet of direct speech breaks through when Samuel first sees Saul and understands God’s intention to…
Exodus 17:1-7 Sermon Commentary
Lent 3A
Pastor’s Cut It is almost too bad that we are expected to preach this text to our congregations because, really, this is a story for pastors. Pastors following God’s guidance (wishing the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night was still a thing) in order to get God’s people where they are supposed…
Psalm 95 Sermon Commentary
Lent 3A
We’ve all heard about stories, plays, TV shows, or movies that conclude with the proverbial “happy ending.” Probably because we prefer happy endings, we gravitate to story lines that provide one. I myself have never heard of anyone speaking about an “unhappy ending” and you get the feeling that this is because filmmakers and novelists…
Romans 5:1-11 Sermon Commentary
Lent 3A
Some of Jesus’ friends, including preachers, are so familiar with Paul’s professions in verses 6 and 8 that they’ve lost some of their power to startle us. “When we were still powerless [asthenon*],” the apostle marvels there, “Christ died [apethanen] for the ungodly [asebon].” “While we were still sinners [hamartolon],” he adds in verse 8,…
John 4:5-42 Sermon Commentary
Lent 3A
The John lectionary narratives are especially long over the next few weeks. There is something lovely about simply sitting and reading a story together as a congregation and seeing what parts grab the community’s attention. In fact, that’s not a bad strategy for choosing where to put your focus as a preacher. For me, the…
Psalm 121 Sermon Commentary
Lent 1A
At a conference I attended recently, a woman who works as a psychologist and counselor addressed the topic of trauma in conversation with the Book of Psalms. She related a story from decades ago when her then-boyfriend became paralyzed following a devastating biking accident. In the midst of her grief and sorrow over this turn…
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.