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Lectionary for June 28, 2026
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Jeremiah 28:5-9; Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18;
Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42
Sometimes I fear for my wife in churches.
My wife grew up in a lovely church and thought of it as a safe space where people train together to carry out God’s mission in the world. Then, in her late 20s, she became a victim of spiritual abuse. A pastor, an interim pastor and the council colluded to defame people, drive them out of the congregation and avoid the consequences of their actions. The denomination (not the ELCA) acknowledged the injuries but did nothing to stop them. My wife left that congregation and spent many years doing the difficult work of deconstructing and reconstructing her faith. She now teaches on biblical justice and community care to prevent others from experiencing the situations that injured her soul.
But I worry about how her hard-won wisdom will be received. Will she be ridiculed? Or will her words be welcomed as those of a prophet, who communicates a message of wisdom, peace and wholeness directly from God? I found myself asking these questions again as I prepared to write this blog. The lectionary texts are all about welcoming a prophet.
In the Gospel reading for this week, Jesus continues his speech to his disciples about authority and priorities in their shared ministry. He is about to send the disciples out to preach and teach, and he wants to make sure they know that they aren’t on their own. Jesus says anyone who welcomes a disciple welcomes him. Anyone who welcomes a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Anyone who welcomes a righteous person will receive a reward as if that person were also righteous. As the disciples head out, Jesus is trying to encourage them, assuring them that God will reward the people who welcome them.
But how do we know which prophets to welcome as prophets? Obviously, we want to welcome everyone into our homes and communities. But who do we trust to tell us what God desires? Jeremiah 28 offers a compelling test for discerning true from false prophets. In this chapter, the Kingdom of Judah was in a bad state. The Babylonians had besieged Jerusalem about four years prior. They had carried off much of the temple furnishings and royal treasury, along with the king and thousands of citizens, to Babylon. It was in this context that Hananiah, a recognized prophet, told the people that God was going to bring all their stuff and people back from exile (Jeremiah 28:2-4). This was a hopeful message of national restoration after national embarrassment.
How do we know the difference between a prophet who is to be welcomed as a true prophet and a false prophet who puts lies in God’s mouth?
Enter Jeremiah. The young prophet agreed that Hananiah’s words sounded lovely. Yet, they weren’t from God. Instead of national restoration, God was much more interested in heart-restoration. The people continued to practice idolatry and injustice without ceasing, so exile was inevitable.
God expects justice for the poor, the foreigner, the sick and the imprisoned. God expects that God’s people won’t make gold or silver images or idols. And when God’s expectations are dashed by recalcitrant commitment to injustice and idolatry, national restoration is off the table. Jeremiah wore a wooden yoke around his neck to show the people that freedom was not in their foreseeable future.
Hananiah wouldn’t let Jeremiah’s words go unchallenged. He took Jeremiah’s prophetic prop and broke it in front of all the people and proclaimed, “This is what the Lord says: within two years, I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon” (11). Hananiah was wrong on all accounts. Two months later, he was dead, having lied and taken God’s name in vain to do so (17). Two years came and went, and the Judahites weren’t free of Babylon. In fact, only eight years later, Jerusalem was fully conquered. The temple and the walls were toppled. And the people who had believed Hananiah’s lies of peace and prosperity were killed or exiled.
But how do we know the difference between a prophet who is to be welcomed as a true prophet and a false prophet who puts lies in God’s mouth? Jeremiah says to consider the content. If someone speaks of consequences for sin such as wars, disasters and plagues—the natural and inevitable consequences of injustice at home and hubris abroad—we should probably believe that prophet. But if someone prophesies peace because God is satisfied with what we are doing and sees no room for improvement … well, believe it when you see it (8-9).
Make no mistake, in Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE, in Galilee in the first century CE, and in the United States in the 21st century, God has a mission and is sending out prophets to proclaim it. And that mission is the same that it has always been. God wants faithfulness to God and love for neighbor, particularly the poor, sick, incarcerated and/or foreign neighbor. True prophets speak of such things. False prophets speak of national greatness without cost or reform. It has always been so.
