Psalm 8 Sermon Commentary
Trinity Sunday A
Probably we don’t know enough about angels to know exactly what it means for the psalmist to suggest that we human being have been made “a little lower” than the angels. We have the sense in Scripture that angels are powerful in their own way. They do the will of God. They are messengers for…
Matthew 28:16-20 Sermon Commentary
Trinity Sunday A
Comments, Questions, and Observations The eleven finally make it to Galilee where Jesus told them to meet him. In the gospel of Matthew, there are no upper room stories, so this meeting on the mountain in Galilee is the first time that the disciples actually encounter the resurrected Jesus in the narrative. After all they…
2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Sermon Commentary
Trinity Sunday A
“Finally, brothers and sisters,” Paul tells his readers of all times and places in verse 11, “rejoice!” [chairete*]. In other words, the apostle basically finishes his second letter to the Corinthian Christians with a summons to be “cheerful” (The Message) or “joyful” (New Living Translation). So it’s as if he tells Jesus’ friends, “When it’s…
Genesis 1:1-2:4a Sermon Commentary
Trinity Sunday A
Pastoral Need In Sunday school, you’d be invited to make a little booklet with one page for each day, a drawing of dark and light, earth and sky, dry land and seas, sun and moon, etc. And that’s how God made the whole thing — out of nothing — one day at a time. In…
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b Sermon Commentary
Pentecost A
Would it ruin anyone’s Pentecost if the Revised Common Lectionary had allowed Psalm 104:35a to be a part of this lection rather than coyly skipping over its line about wishing that evil and wicked people would vanish from the earth? And by itself, is that desire so terrible? Maybe it’s a luxury for people in…
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 Sermon Commentary
Pentecost A
Christians sometimes rightly think of Pentecost as the birthday of the Church. Since birthdays are often occasions for gift-giving, it seems appropriate for preachers to join Paul in considering and celebrating the gifts [charismaton*] the Holy Spirit gives to the members of the Body of Christ that is the Church. Few texts open themselves to…
Acts 2:1-21 Sermon Commentary
Pentecost A
Trouble in the Text In the ancient Mediterranean world when Jesus was born, you could count on the fact that everyone spoke Greek as, if not a first, then a second or third language. It had something like the linguistic power of English in the world today. You could travel the world safely knowing you…
John 7:37-39 Sermon Commentary
Pentecost A
The setting is the end of the Festival of Booths (or Tabernacles). The Festival remembers the way that God provided for the Israelites in their desert wanderings and is when they ask for God to send rain for the year’s crops. The people also looked to the future hope promised in passages like Ezekiel 47,…
Sermon Commentary Library
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