Psalm 30 Sermon Commentary
Easter 3C
A core tenet of the Christian faith is, to quote from the much-loved hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not, as Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.” The more fancy theological term for this is the Doctrine of Divine Immutability. Or we sometimes say God is the same…
Revelation 5:11-14 Sermon Commentary
Easter 3C
I sometimes wonder if the sheer volume of what John heard in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson threatened his hearing. After all, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association reports it isn’t safe to hear the noise created by a jackhammer, jet plane takeoff, siren or pneumatic drill for any period of time. What’s more, the report labels as…
John 21:1-19 Sermon Commentary
Easter 3C
The new life that Easter represents finds its expression this week in a call to discipleship. So much about this pair of scenes calls back the original call to disciples. The gospel writer tells us that this is the third time Jesus appears to the group, but even still, the awkwardness the disciples feel as…
Acts 9:1-20 Sermon Commentary
Easter 3C
The reliable Jewish world of the 1st century is showing unfamiliar cracks. It has always had a tenuous relationship with Rome and there were always pipsqueaks on a soapbox teaching this or that quirky take on the Torah. But the seismic activity rippling out from the teaching and death of Jesus has got the establishment…
Acts 5:27-32 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2C
Note:Reviewing old sermon notes, I realized I last preached this text for my congregation in Washington DC in 2019. Thereis a lot of contextualization having to do with Christians working as civil servants for the United States federal government. I am going to leave that in place since, six years later, it sadly seems all…
Psalm 150 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2C
Psalm 150 is the giant exclamation mark that closes out the Book of Psalms. In six swift and short verses the psalmist looks back on the previous 149 songs in the Hebrew Psalter and then as much as says, “Here’s what this whole book has been saying all along.” The psalms—each of them and all…
Revelation 1:4-8 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2C
It sometimes seems as if 21st century North American culture has largely omitted formal greetings from its communications. At least some of us have replaced, “Dear Joan (or John),” with something like “Hey.” In fact, in the case of emails, we often skip greetings altogether and simply hurry to what we wish to communicate. I…
John 20:19-31 Sermon Commentary
Easter 2C
Suffering is the feeling, the fear, the bedrock that fills the space of the story without really ever being its focus. Even when Thomas is touching the wounds in Jesus’s side and hands, suffering is the note played, but not the song sung. Being held captive by fear is most definitely a kind of suffering….
Psalm 114 Sermon Commentary
Easter Day C
Last week our Psalm commentary was on Psalm 118, one of the options for Palm/Passion Sunday. This week the Year C Easter Psalm is 118, the only option. So for this commentary we will take up Psalm 114, which is the Psalm assigned for Easter evening. Psalm 114 is in its own way a somewhat…
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.