Fifth Sunday after Pentecost	June 28, 2026
Prayer of the Day
Lord of all power and might, you are the author and giver of all good things. Graft into our hearts a love of your name. Increase in us true faith, nourish us with what is good, and watch over all who are in your care. Grant this, we pray, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
First Reading: Jeremiah 28:5-9 
5The prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, 6and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. 7Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”
Psalm 119:153-160 
153Behold my affliction and de- | liver me,*
	for I do not for- | get your law.
154Plead my cause | and redeem me;*
	according to your promise, | give me life.
155Deliverance is far | from the wicked,*
	for they do not stu- | dy your statutes.
156Great is your compas- | sion, O Lord;*
	preserve my life, according | to your judgments.
157There are many who persecute | and oppress me,*
	yet I have not swerved from | your decrees.
158I look with loathing | at the faithless,*
	for they have not | kept your word.
159See how I love | your commandments!*
	O Lord, in your mer- | cy, preserve me.
160The heart of your | word is truth;*
	all your righteous judgments endure for- | evermore.
Psalm 119:153-160 (ESV)
153Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.
154Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to your promise!
155Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes.
156Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your rules.
157Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
158I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands.
159Consider how I love your precepts! Give me life, O Lord, according to your steadfast love.
160The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
Second Reading: Romans 7:1-13 
1Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to those who know the law — that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Gospel: Matthew 10:34-42
34{Jesus said to the disciples,} “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 40Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
Next Week’s Readings:
Zechariah 9:9-12; Psalm 145:1-14; Romans 7:14-25a; Matthew 11:25-30