I Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Sermon Commentary
Christmas 1C
Acknowledging that the Hebrew Scripture text may not be everyone’s immediate choice for the Sunday after Christmas, I want to use this text as a lens on the others or, perhaps, to demonstrate reverberations and harmonies between this text and the others as a way of deepening your engagement with all the texts together. Commentary:…
Luke 2:41-52 Sermon Commentary
Christmas 1C
We know where to find him. That’s the sense I keep coming back to with this lone story about Jesus as a teenager. Maybe it’s the stage of life I’m in. Maybe it’s world events and how some of us seem to have lost the plot on what it means to be a Christian. Maybe…
Psalm 148 Sermon Commentary
Christmas 1C
Whether it is Lectionary Year A, B, or C, if it’s the first Sunday after Christmas, you will see Psalm 148 as the psalm reading. Somebody along the way must have determined that this is such a fitting post-Christmas Day psalm that no Lectionary cycle would be complete without it. Many years that Sunday is…
Colossians 3:12-17 Sermon Commentary
Christmas 1C
Few phrases naturally come more slowly to children’s lips than, “Thank you.” As a result, diligent parents must spend a great deal of time persistently teaching their sons and daughters to express their gratitude. In fact, few of us need to think farther back than the course of this past month to remember how often…
Psalm 80:1-7 Sermon Commentary
Advent 4C
If you pay close attention to the Psalm readings across the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary, then you know the Lectionary likes Psalm 80. But it never manages to assign the whole psalm. Either you get just the first seven verses (as here for Advent 4C) or nine verses from the middle of…
Hebrews 10:5-10 Sermon Commentary
Advent 4C
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson offers preachers one more opportunity to publicly reflect on how God comes to us in the here and now. Hebrews’ author, after all, professes in verse 10 that “we have been made holy [hagiasmenoi*] through the sacrifice [prosphoras] of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [ephapax].” On this last…
Luke 1:39-45 (46-55) Sermon Commentary
Advent 4C
We don’t hear Mary and the angel’s conversation this year but we do witness its aftereffects. Seized with anticipation of a fellow miracle-receiver, Mary hastens to the countryside to find her elder cousin Elizabeth. The thing is, we’re told that Mary was given the scoop about Elizabeth’s pregnancy from the angel Gabriel, but not vice…
Micah 5:2-5 Sermon Commentary
Advent 4C
Illustration: Depending on how churches structure their worship services for the holidays, this may function as a kind-of Christmas preview or, at least, one last Sunday before the Christmas Eve or Christmas Day celebrations. So you might riff on those expectations a bit. If you have the opportunity to solicit answers and foster a bit…
Philippians 4:4-7 Sermon Commentary
Advent 3C
We’ve already noted how the Year C RCL Epistolary lessons devote relatively scant attention to the first and second comings of Christ. But at least on the first two Sundays in Advent they mention Christ’s return by referring to “the day of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 3:13; Philippians 1:6, 10) This Sunday’s Lesson doesn’t even…
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.