1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5C
1 Corinthians 15’s stirring recap of Christ’s resurrection and its impact is one of the great chapters of Scripture. This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s portion of it introduces Paul’s teaching about the coming resurrection of Jesus’ followers. Countless preachers and others used it to proclaim Christian hope in face of dying and death. But toward the…
Psalm 138 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5C
The honesty of the psalms is always refreshing. In the case of Psalm 138, such honesty comes through most especially in the final line of the poem. Mostly this psalm brims with enthusiasm for God. Whole-hearted praise begins the psalm followed by joyful observations about how he will continue to worship God, how God always…
Luke 5:1-11 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5C
I’m intrigued by the way Jesus enlists Simon Peter at each stage of this miracle, and how, by doing so, Jesus leads Peter to conversion. The story begins with Jesus teaching a large group of people. As more and more gather and push in on him in order to hear his unique take on the…
Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13) Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 5C
Illustration: It Doesn’t Get Better Than This As a graduate student, I am currently in a season of studying for my comprehensive exams. A couple months ago, I took my reading lists, a calendar and opened a brand new spreadsheet on my computer. I took the afternoon to create a weekly calendar and scheduled my…
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 4C
Have you ever wondered why Paul calls love the “greatest [meizon*] of these” (13:13)? Why did the Spirit inspire him to refer to the gift of love as even greater than the great gifts of faith and hope? After all, while love is great, faith is God’s great gift that equips us to receive God’s…
Psalm 71:1-6 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 4C
Even just the half-dozen verses that the Lectionary selects for us from the larger text of Psalm 71 capture the essence of most of the 150 psalms in the Hebrew Psalter. Consider all of what is spoken and expressed in the span of just these few verses: Images of God as refuge and rock and…
Luke 4:21-30 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 4C
We really run the gamut of human emotions during Jesus’s first preaching assignment in his hometown. How does the congregation go from being amazed, all eyes fixed on Jesus, to so livid with him that they try to lynch him? I emphasised the moment of the Holy Spirit at work as Jesus preached in the…
Jeremiah 1:4-10 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 4C
Commentary: Why Does God Prefer the Cotton-Mouthed? The keen reader of Scripture might wonder, when reading this week’s Hebrew Scripture text, “where have I heard that before?” In response to God’s call, Jeremiah protests, “I know not how to speak,.” Both Moses and Isaiah claimed the same malady but neither of them got out of…
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 3C
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson in some ways turns its hearers’ attention away from the well-being of all people toward the well-being of Christ’s Body, the Church. Yet while it to some extent focuses on inward rather than outward matters, Paul does not ignore the “common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). Rather, he implies that the Church…
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.