Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 7C
Psalm 37 is a little bit all over the place. The Lectionary would have us skip 27 of this poem’s 40 verses but to preach well on this psalm, we need to at least read through verses 12-38. And if we do so, then we see that Psalm 37 is at once highly realistic and…
Luke 6:27-38 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 7C
From the highs of naming names and giving the high and mighty the what for last week, we come down to the realization of what God’s mercy means for all of us this week. It turns out that those who are blessed are meant to love, do good towards, and bless and pray for those…
Genesis 45:3-11, 15 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 7C
It matters how you tell the story. After chapters and chapters of some narrator telling us Joseph’s story, with very few places where Joseph, himself, gives meaning to the unfolding events. After the most recent three chapters where we experience the brothers living out their story until, two weeks ago, Judah finally spilled the whole…
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 7C
The Scriptures’ “perspicuity” is for some Christians a familiar but sometimes misunderstood concept. By it Jesus’ followers basically mean that the Holy Spirit makes clear what God wants to communicate through the Scriptures to God’s people and world. So we sometimes say the Spirit makes perspicuous the Scriptures’ central truths like God’s creation of everything…
Luke 6:17-26 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 6C
Along with a number of his others disciples, the newly minted inner twelve have come down the mountain with Jesus. The plain where Jesus stops them is full of people: great crowd of disciples, great multitudes from all over. They are all there because of Jesus. The people have come to hear him and be…
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 6C
In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul refers to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as being “of first importance.” Christians generally assume that the primary importance is to our faith that receives God’s grace. But this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson suggests that Christ’s resurrection in particular is also central to our hope for life, including life after death….
Psalm 1 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 6C
The Book of Psalms begins with a beatitude. But unlike Jesus’s well-known Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount that begins in Matthew 5, Psalm 1’s beatitude is not for what a person is or for what a person does. Instead, this blessing concerns what a given person does not do. Principally a person is…
Jeremiah 17:5-10 Sermon Commentary
Epiphany 6C
Tie-In Across Lectionary Texts Sometimes, especially with the Hebrew Scripture text, our best bet is to read it as supplement and complement to the other texts chosen on a given Sunday. This week’s lectionary readings lend themselves that way this week. Across all the lectionary readings this week, with the possible exception of the epistle,…
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…
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.