Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 Sermon Commentary
Easter 5A
For the most part Psalm 31 sounds just one primary note across its 24 verses. So although the Lectionary has chopped it up to carve out the opening 5 verses and then 2 verses closer to the middle of the song, the main theme and imagery of the psalm are still visible. In the verses…
1 Peter 2:2-10 Sermon Commentary
Easter 5A
God uses God’s image-bearers’ race, gender, history and other things to shape who we are. Yet while those factors help form us, Jesus’ friends don’t find our central identity in them. We are first and foremost what Peter refers to in verse 10 as “the people of God [laos Theou*].” By professing that, the apostle…
Acts 7:55-60 Sermon Commentary
Easter 5A
The Lectionary text is only 5 verses long but it is in the context of one and a half chapters telling us the story of Stephen. Making connections to the five verses in the Lectionary, I will use my commentary to tell this larger story. Illustration Reformation scholar Kenneth Woo’s newly released book, Refugee Calvin,…
John 14:1-14 Sermon Commentary
Easter 5A
As I spend more time journeying with Jesus, I’m coming to realize that Thomas’s question, “How can we know the way?” could be read in any number of ways. There’s the literal reading that sounds a bit like a prayer in the fog: “Lord, we don’t see the road that you’re telling us to take,…
John 10:1-10 Sermon Commentary
Easter 4A
The lectionary calendar separates Jesus healing the man born blind (chapter 9) with Jesus’s “I am” proclamation here at the beginning of chapter 10 by a number of weeks—the first being in Lent and now here in Easter. A quick review of the man’s experience of being kicked out of the synagogue makes it pretty…
Acts 2:42-47 Sermon Commentary
Easter 4A
Illustration A magazine profile of celebrity chef turned daytime television host, Rachael Ray, boasted this headline on their cover: “Rachael Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog.” It matters where you put the comma. Giving Rachel Ray the benefit of the doubt, one assumes she likes three things — cooking (COMMA) her…
1 Peter 2:19-25 Sermon Commentary
Easter 4A
The faithful proclamation of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson poses some challenges. In terms of the church year, its focus on Jesus’ suffering seems to orient it more to a Lenten or Holy Week than Easter theme. Preachers may need the Spirit to help us be a bit creative to make 1 Peter 2:19-25 “fit” into…
Psalm 23 Sermon Commentary
Easter 4A
In an article he wrote some years ago, theologian Neal Plantinga told the story of a choir that was rehearsing for a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. But the choir was not giving the conductor what he was looking for. As it turned out, the choir was almost too good, too professional. So the…
Acts 2:14, 36-41 Sermon Commentary
Easter 3A
Illustration I was, it may surprise some of you to learn, a theatre geek in high school. Of course I loved to be on stage performing for an audience (I know, right? Shocker.) But I also helped with costumes, did some stage managing and student directing. But my favorite part wasn’t the flush of pride,…
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.