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Luke 13:10-17 Sermon Commentary
Proper 16C
When the truth humiliates you, you are humiliated indeed. Worse, when a truth so obvious that it can be stated in a sentence or two humiliates you, then your shame is profound. It’s one thing if a philosopher builds an elaborate argument to disprove some point you had made but it’s another thing if a…
Psalm 103:1-8 Sermon Commentary
Proper 16C
There are some pieces of music, certain poems, some scenes in movies that are so lyric, so moving, so flat out beautiful that it doesn’t matter how often you hear it, read it, or see it: it gets you every time. Psalm 103 is like that. I usually balk a bit when the Lectionary slices…
Hebrews 12:18-29 Sermon Commentary
Proper 16C
My colleague Scott Hoezee, to whom (August, 2016 commentary) with Tom Long (Hebrews, John Knox Press, 1997) I owe a great deal for this commentary’s ideas, compares reading this morning’s text to watching a good tennis match’s extended rally. After all, spectators must constantly turn their heads to watch a good rally. They must look…
Jeremiah 1:4-10 Sermon Commentary
Proper 16C
Sometimes it feels as though the Lectionary has a mild case of Alzheimer’s, because it seems to forget that we just talked about a certain text, just a few months ago. Now here it is again in the cycle of readings. That’s the case on this Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, deep in the heart of…
Commentary posted on August 19, 2019
Proper 16C Sermon Commentary
The Proper 16C Sermon Starters include commentary and illustration ideas for Luke 13:10-17 from the Lectionary Gospel; Jeremiah 1:4-10 from the Old Testament Lectionary; Psalm 103:1-8 from the Lectionary Psalms; and Hebrews 12:18-29 from the Lectionary Epistle.
Related Reformed confession: Lectionary Psalm: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 56 (Lord’s Day 21)