Romans 6:1b-11 Sermon Commentary
Proper 7A
There are enormous stakes involved in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. It, after all, deals with matters of life and death. But not just life and death in the conventional sense. Paul also speaks of life and death at their deepest levels. He names and describes the life that leads to death, as well as the…
Genesis 21:8-21 Sermon Commentary
Proper 7A
Illustration: A while ago I heard a reporter, a Middle East correspondent with decades of experience in Palestine and Israel, being interviewed on the news. He was responding to push back from a listener who didn’t think he gave enough background in a recent news report. You could almost hear the wry smile in the…
Matthew 10:24-39 Sermon Commentary
Proper 7A
We continue this week with Jesus speaking to his disciples as he commissions them to go out and to heal, cure, and generally spread the good news. But these words have such a ring to them that it’s also pretty clear that there’s something bigger, more universally true, being said here than some warnings for…
Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18 Sermon Commentary
Proper 7A
The Year A Lectionary has carved out the precise center of Psalm 69, joining the psalm’s action after the first 6 verses that set the stage for a beleaguered psalmist crying for help and then stopping short of a string of verses that call down harsh judgment on the poet’s enemies before the song concludes…
Romans 5:1-8 Sermon Commentary
Proper 6A
At the beginning of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson Paul carries forward the theme with which he ended last Sunday’s Lesson: Jesus’ followers’ “justification” (4:23). In verses 1-2a the apostle writes, “Since we have been justified [dikaiothentes*] through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access [prosagogen]…
Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) Sermon Commentary
Proper 6A
(Commentator’s Note: A lot happens between Genesis 12 and Genesis 21 but we only have 1 Sunday in the Lectionary to tell the whole story. This commentary intends to tell the whole story, with stops in Genesis 18 and 21. Pastoral Need God’s Word has plenty to say about waiting. The letters of Paul and…
Psalm 100 Sermon Commentary
Proper 6A
Recently when the Lectionary featured Psalm 23 as the Year A lection, I took note of the fact that for all its fame as a psalm, the 23rd psalm is actually very short, quite compact. This week we are led to Psalm 100 and it also is among the better-known songs in the Hebrew Psalter. …
Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23) Sermon Commentary
Proper 6A
Our passage this week begins with Jesus feeling significant compassion for the crowds surrounding him. He was meeting a lot of them, going with his disciples from city to village and at every turn he encounters need after need. Matthew describes him as continuously proclaiming the good news and curing every disease and every sickness:…
Psalm 50:7-15 Sermon Commentary
Proper 5A
The Lectionary has carved out the exact middle section of Psalm 50 for this Ordinary Time Sunday in Year A. It would have us skip the first half-dozen verses that summon Israel to gather before God and then the final verses that are all about a scolding of the wicked. Instead we focus on God’s…
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.
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