Exodus 16:2-15 Sermon Commentary
Proper 20A
Illustration I was recently watching a TV show with my 4-year-old and, at one point, an item begins to ring. The main character picks up the top part, connected to the bottom part with a curly wire and speaks into it. On the main, bottom part, there is a circle with numbers, almost like a…
Psalm 145:1-8 Sermon Commentary
Proper 20A
Recently as I read the first 8 verses of Psalm 145, I found myself oddly enough wondering what is the antecedent for all the “they” references in especially verses 4-7. On the one level it is almost certainly the case that the “they” refers back to the next generation. One generation commends God’s works to…
Philippians 1:21-30 Sermon Commentary
Proper 20A
Earlier this summer I was summoned to the hospital room of a Christian whom doctors had recently told was dying. Penny and Andy (not their real names) were trying to wrap their heads around the news that doctors could do little more for her than try to keep her relatively comfortable. This news provoked in…
Matthew 20:1-16 Sermon Commentary
Proper 20A
Right before Jesus tells this parable, he talks with his disciples about the rewards for following him. Peter, seemingly filled with awe, says, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you! What then will we have?” (19:27) The reward Jesus describes to him is stellar, even if it is given to “everyone who has left houses…
Psalm 103: (1-7), 8-13 Sermon Commentary
Proper 19A
The first half dozen verses of Psalm 103 are familiar to some of us because a lot of churches use those words as the words of Thanksgiving following a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. At our church, the pastor reads the words and the congregation then echoes them. They are such fitting words following…
Romans 14:1-12 Sermon Commentary
Proper 19A
For millennia, Christians have professed Christ “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” But some of Jesus’ friends have struggled to reconcile that assertion with our profession of God’s saving grace. How and why, some of us wonder, will God judge those whom God has already graciously rescued? Earlier commentaries (https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2017-09-11/romans-141-12/ and…
Matthew 18:21-35 Sermon Commentary
Proper 19A
As we discussed last week, Peter’s question about forgiveness escalates as it personalizes the conversation about wrongs done against one another. Whereas last week intentionally sets accountability front and centre, this week forgiveness takes center stage. The two belong together. We might understand the parable as describing internal accountability: we have been forgiven and therefore…
Exodus 14:19-31 Sermon Commentary
Proper 19A
Illustration The story of the exodus is a potent motif for shaping the story of oppressed people. In the US context, we know this from the way the story was used in songs written by enslaved people. “Go down Moses and tell old Pharaoh, ‘let my people go.’” Harriet Tubman, who famously led hundreds to…
Psalm 119:33-40 Sermon Commentary
Proper 18A
A few weeks back, for the last Sunday in July, the RCL took us to a snippet of Psalm 119 (verses 129-136), and now here we are again – but this time verses 33-40. So to review all the basics: Psalm 119 is the longest of all the psalms clocking in at 176 verses. Those…
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.