June 28, 2026 | Word Out!
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READINGS
First Reading: Jeremiah 28:5-9
5 The prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord and all the exiles. 7 But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”
Second Reading: Romans 6:12-23
12 Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires. 13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of your limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.
20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42
[Jesus said to the twelve:] 40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
SERMON—Pastor Dan Peterson
Grace to you, and peace, from God, the Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.
This is what my uncle used to call a “Rah-Rah speech.” The question here is, “who are we?”
As you know, I’m in the business of interpreting sometimes extremely difficult texts, texts that are separated from us by a large span of time, large distance, a very different context, and of course, language. Each week, after dabbling in some of the complexities of the texts we consider, my attempt has been to give a phrase or idea to hold you for a week to come; something for you to ponder in your heart, as Mary does, when she learns that her baby Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord.
On Holy Trinity Sunday, for example, just four weeks ago, we learned about how the Trinity, for all its complexities, is simply the Christian way of saying “God is love.”
This morning I invite you to ponder another simple message based on the readings,
a message that answers the question of who we are, or more specifically, who we are called to be, as people of God.
Even more specifically, I’m offering here an answer to who we are called to be as members and friends of Queen Anne Lutheran Church. Briefly, I’m going to suggest we are to be a People of Peace, we are called to be a People of Grace, and we are called to be a People of Hospitality. Peace, grace, and hospitality. Let’s look at each of these briefly.
We are called, first, to be a People of Peace. In our first reading for today, we meet the prophet Jeremiah, who speaks to the prophet Hananiah before an assembly in the house of the Lord, that is the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. This scene takes place on the eve of the Babylonian exile. Several of you who were present in yesterday’s confirmation class may recall that the Babylonian exile took place in the Sixth Century BCE, from about 586 BCE to 536 BCE. 50 years. The Jews were overtaken by the Babylonians. Their temple was destroyed. They were brought into exile for 50 years, after which they were liberated in 536 by the King of Persia, Cyrus the Great.
This is one of the most important events in Biblical Judaism. It would modify the way the Jews understood the Divine and provide for us, among other things, what would become the Hebrew Bible. Jeremiah takes place on the eve of the exile. Here the prophet refers to how Babylon has already looted the temple and kidnapped some of the leaders of Israel. The true prophet, he says, is not simply one who foretells the destruction of other nations. The true prophet, he says, is one who correctly foretells the peace between nations that God wants. That’s what God desires: peace between nations.
In the New Testament, Paul adds in Second Corinthians 13 that because our God is “a God of love and peace,” we are called to agree with one another and to live in peace as a people of God. Now, that is not always easy, especially when it comes to things like money and church property, but that is our calling. We are called to be a people of peace; something we practice every Sunday in the Sharing of the Peace, and something we receive every Sunday, along with grace, when we receive Holy Communion and become friends with God.
So, who are we? Point one, we are called to be a People of Peace, going all the way back to the prophet Jeremiah. Secondly, we are called to be a People of Grace. In our Second Reading, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that by grace, that is, by a free gift of God, we have, in principle at least, been freed from the power of sin—and that’s good news; that’s great news; that’s incredible news; that’s Gospel news.
Freed, as we heard last week, from vanity, from the need to be seen; freed, not simply to do as we please, but to become, as Paul says, “slaves to righteousness and slaves with it to God.”
In other words, instead of being bound to ourselves and the gratification of our own selfish desires, we are freed to live for God and to care for one another. Freed by God’s love, freed by God’s acceptance, freed by God’s grace, to refrain, among other things, from judging other people, to cast our neighbors and actions in the best light whenever possible.
Martin Luther writes in the Small Catechism regarding the Eighth Commandment, “We are to fear and to love God, so that we don’t tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead, we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”
We are, in short, people of grace.
Now, when I was a professor at Seattle University, many, it seems now, many years ago, I remember having a student who would always be late to class. This frustrated me, as somebody who struggles to be on time himself. And so I waited, and I waited, and finally at the end of one class I came up to him, and I said, “This is enough. You’ve been late too many times; you’re distracting other students, and you’re making it difficult for me to teach!”
At which point the student began to cry. I will never forget that, because what I didn’t know, instead of starting with accusation, was that his brother had been in what became an almost-deadly car accident. I pick the perfect day to judge him, to accuse him, instead of starting with a word of grace. That doesn’t let him off the hook, but it just goes to show that as a person and as a people who are called to be gracious, we should start with a word of wonder, instead of with a word of accusation.
In addition to being, or being called to be, a people of peace and grace, we are called, finally, to be a People of Hospitality. In our Gospel Reading for today, Jesus says, “Whoever gives even a cup of water to one of these little ones, in the name of a disciple,”—presumably the marginalized, disenfranchised, those in need—“Truly, I tell you,” Jesus says, “none of these will lose their reward.”
Jesus speaks of “the least of these” multiple times in the Gospel of Matthew, not only here in our Gospel Reading for today, but perhaps more famously in Matthew 25, where he says, “Whatever you do to the least of these,” that is, to the marginalized, “you do to me.”
We are called not to worsen their marginalization; instead we are called to offer them hospitality. Indeed, as Hebrews 13 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
That is something I love about this little church, Queen Anne Lutheran. We are good at hospitality. When people come through that door, they know, from what many have told me, that they are welcome here. Indeed, our opening hymn was “All Are Welcome in This Place.” This is, at its best, a place of hospitality where no one leaves feeling unwelcomed, where all are welcome in this place. And that’s one of the things that makes me proud to be a pastor of your church.
So, there you have it. As a people of God, and more specifically, as members and friends of Queen Anne Lutheran, we are called to be a People of Peace, according to the First Reading; Called to be a People of Grace, according to the Second Reading; and called to be a People of Hospitality, according to our Gospel Reading.
So, here’s an idea. Let’s live into our call! Let’s not try to be something we’re not. Let’s lean into who we are. Let’s affirm who we are. As the Lutheran pastor, Lauren Wolf Blatt writes, “Lutheranism was never meant to be a religious self-improvement program. We don’t gather around charismatic personalities in a mega church.” (I’d like to think I’m charismatic, but apparently not.) “We don’t gather around emotional experiences or promises of success. We simply gather around Word and Sacrament. We proclaim a God who meets people, not in strength, but in weakness, not in triumph, but in a cross. And we need to be honest about another piece of this as well. Many megachurches thrive on a cycle of fear and certainty. They identify a threat: ‘your marriage is failing, your children are leaving the faith, the culture is collapsing, God is disappointed in you. The world is out to get you.’ And then they position themselves as the solution. ‘Follow this program by this curriculum. Join this group. Vote this way. Give more. Pray harder. Trust our leadership.’ “
“The pattern is simple: create anxiety, then sell relief. That’s dangerous, not because fear is never real, but because fear is an incredibly effective way to gain influence over people.
“The Gospel works differently. Lutheran theology begins by telling the truth about our fears, our failures, and our brokenness. But it does not leave us there. It doesn’t use fear as a leverage. It doesn’t hold grace hostage until we comply, or say the right words. It doesn’t place salvation, success, or God’s favor, in the hands of a pastor, a church brand, or a ministry system.
Instead, it points away from itself, and toward Christ. Our answer to fear is not a technique, it’s not a five-step plan, it’s not a charismatic leader, it’s not a bigger budget; it’s the crucified and risen Christ who says, “Do not be afraid.”
Do not be afraid.
“The answer to declining churches isn’t becoming a less-Lutheran version of a megachurch. The answer is becoming a more faithful version of who we already are.
People today are exhausted by performance, consumerism, outrage, and carefully crafted religious brands. Many are hungry for authenticity, community, mystery, grace, and a faith that can tell the truth about suffering, while still proclaiming hope.”
“We have that here in abundance. Stop trying to out-church the mega-churches,” Blatt says; “they will always do it better than you. Instead, be who you are: teach grace, reach grace, practice hospitality, offer beauty in worship, create genuine community, tell the truth about human brokenness. Feed people with Word and Sacrament.”
“The church,” she concludes, “doesn’t need another copy of the megachurch.” It needs congregations like ours confident enough to proclaim a God who doesn’t manipulate people through fear, but who frees them through grace.”
“Don’t let fear be your God. Carry on, my fellow gospel workers.”
In other words, when it comes to the answer to the question, “Who are we?” or “Who does God call us to be?” It’s simple. God calls us to be a people of peace. God, as Blatt knows, calls us to be a people of grace, and God, as Christ says, invites us to be a people of hospitality, who welcome the stranger, and become Him to our neighbor in need. That is who we are.
And all God’s people said loudly,
Amen.