Eighth Sunday after Trinity (2026)

Jeremiah 23:16-29

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have the today the Prophet Jeremiah, who is known as the weeping prophet. Today in our lessons, each speaks of the concern of those who come prophesying against God’s Holy Word, and bringing trouble to God’s children. For when they lie about what God has promised and said, they create a false expectation about what God will do and who he really is. This is disastrous and we will get into today, but you will also see why it is important that we hold faithfully to the Word of God above all else for it alone is able to save your soul, and if you abandon the Word, then there is no salvation for you or those who believe these lies.

Who is Jeremiah?

He was prophet in Jerusalem.

There were many different folks that claimed to be prophets at this time, but they wouldn’t bring the word of God to the people, God chastises them through Jeremiah, that they ran to the people to bring a message, but the message didn’t come from God, rather it came from their own minds and dreams. To understand why this was happening, you need to know a bit of history and the kings of that day. Jeremiah had several kings while he was alive and prophesying, and.

The first king, Josiah, was good.

His father had been abysmal, however, Josiah reformed the nation which had fallen greatly. Brought back the Passover for the first time in centuries, the priests who had been working in the temple, found the book of the Torah, the books of Moses 18 years into his reign. Imagine that, a church being restored, but not reading from God’s word for 18 years, because they misplaced the Bible. It wasn’t just one church, the temple where the people were to come and offer sacrifices had lost God’s Word. That’s how bad it had gotten. So Josiah, the good king, banished the necromancers, this means those who are doing magic with the dead, this includes spiritists, mediums, and witches. He also banishes the idols and all the abominations that they had committed, Josiah was working hard, but eventually fell in battle, and his son came to the throne, and what did the nation do?

The nation strayed from the Lord.

They went back to their old ways, it shouldn’t surprise us, Josiah was the driving force, and with his death it was very easy to just turn back to the old ways. The tragedy was compounded the kings who followed him, his sons, his own flesh and blood, abandoned what their father had given them and taught them, and the love that Josiah had for the Lord they turned their back on it. So the Lord gave to Jeremiah the Word he was to preach in a land of dreamers, of idols, and abominations.

Jeremiah was to preach repentance.

He was to call the people back from their sins, because if they continued in their wickedness they would face the wrath of God, but also to remind them that they were not so far gone, that God could not forgive for the Lord would forgive them for the sake of one righteous man. But they were impenitent, which is to say, there was no repentance. So

What is Repentance?

Now, You and I, we need to know what repentance is, because

Jesus calls everyone to repent.

That is a repeated message in Scripture, but that doesn’t really tell us what it means. Repentance means nothing else than to recognize sin truly, to be heartily sorrowful for it, and to abstain from it. There is this contrition this sorrow that is wrought by the Spirit through the Word, and it doesn’t feel good, but there is also hope that trusts in the promises of God. The greek word metanoia which means a changed mind, a 180 flip. Jerusalem was in big trouble, what we find is that

They threw out the first commandment.

They bowed down and worshiped the gods of Egypt, the gods of Babylon, they made their own and rebuilt what Josiah had torn down. Can you imagine being Jeremiah who came from a family of priests, and after the abuses of the previous kings, you have a good king who restores the passover, who loves the Lord, but when he dies his sons, not only re-institute the pagan practices, but

There were idols in the temple.

They desecrated the temple of the Lord, the temple built by solomon, and they brought all manner of wickedness and evil into, and said you don’t have to worship only the Lord, you can worship however and whomever you like. We translate the first commandment, as you shall have no other gods before me. That doesn’t quite catch the full meaning in hebrew. You shall have no gods before my face, that is in my presence, and they setup the altars not just on the street corners, but brought those abominations into God’s holy temple.

How Did Israel Respond?

Both great and small refused.

One priest even locked Jeremiah up in stocks and had him beaten for what the Lord had given him to preach. They didn’t want to hear it, they only wanted a message that affirmed what they already wanted to do, and would tell them everything would be fine and they could continue in their sins.

They listened to false prophets.

Thinking that the prophet proclaiming repent, was the in the wrong, and that he was the false teacher for wasn’t this city, the city of Jerusalem, the city of peace, given to David their great king and the temple of Solomon was here, surely God would defend his house? But Ezekiel who had been taken captive over to Babylon was also called to prophesy at this time, and he told the people the Spirit of the Lord left the temple. Then the day came,

Jerusalem fell, and the temple was destroyed.

It was torn down and obliterated. That famous passage from Jeremiah 29:11,For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. The plan was to send them into slavery for 70 years in a foreign land, as God would give the land its promised Sabbath rest. Eventually God does bring some of them back, but many continued in their ways remained in the land of their slavery.

Learning from God’s Word

God wants you to learn.

In 1 Corinthians 10, we are told that these things were written down for your instruction that we might not desire evil as they did. For the call to repentance that came from Jeremiah was echoed by Christ who is your God and Lord, and desires that you not perish. Now you might say, we have no idols setup inside our sanctuary to pagan gods, so we are fine, we don’t need to worry about it. The idols didn’t begin with statues, they begin inside of you, so

What idols are in your heart?

That’s where the idols are born, what is a god except that which we cling to in times of distress, that thing which we believe brings us good, and hope, and peace. Why did men worship Ares, the god of war? So they and their friends would survive the battle. What about the women who worshiped hestia, goddes of the hearth? They wanted everything to be fine with their families at home. Why do people turn to New Age beliefs, and Wicca today? Because they are dissatisfied with their life, and want the power to change it. The heart is an endless idol factory chasing after all manner of things, but your body is a temple, and you should not setup idols where the Lord is to be. We are all guilty of this, and so we all need to

Hear the call to repent.

To recognize that what should be most important is not friendship, is not family, is not love, is not lust, is not money, is not good health, is not honor, status, to feeling good and having fun, we have all setup idols to these desires, addictions, passions, and its time for them to be cleaned out because you belong to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For we chase after these desires, but they all perish. Rather we ought to hear the Word of God, that calls you to set aside these abominations in our hearts, and consider instead

God’s Love for You

God gave His Word for you.

We were blind and deaf in the world consumed by our own desires, but God did not desire that we perish in our sins. He sent the prophets, and the Apostles who wrote down the very Word of God that you might know, not only who you are, but why we are here, and what God has done for us as your Creator. To make sense of the world instead of just passing through it without a clue. While His Word condemns the idols in our heart and makes us feel bad at times, it is so that we don’t build our hope of the useless dreams of men. Furthermore,

Jesus gave His life for you.

Which of your desires sacrificed itself for your benefit? They always have to be chased, they always demand more sacrifices, but the Son of God offered Himself up for your sake, so that you might be His own. Why? Because Jesus loves you. So why would you set up an idol to money, to work, even family and friends pale in comparison to what the Son of God has done for you. For Jesus and the Father sent the Holy Spirit, and it was

The Spirit made you alive.

When God breathed life into Adam, as we read last week, the word for breath is the word for Spirit, we were brought to life by the action of God, and when we lost the image of God, and were in need of salvation, Christ has sent His Spirit upon us to regenerate us, to bring us from death to life that we might have a place in His kingdom. To bring the presence of God back into the disused temple of our heart that had long forgotten His Word and bring the blessings that God had promised.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, You are God’s temple, and you have been brought to life by the Spirit of God and made a Christian. God’s Word has brought the days of Josiah to our hearts, the idols have been identified, they have been cleaned out, but when you leave today will you walk in the ways of Josiah’s sons, and go back to your old ways, or you will you repent and abandon these lifeless desires, and remain instead in the life that has been given to you by Jesus Christ your Lord who desired and worked for your salvation? Will we learn from what has been written down for our instruction, or walk the same path as those who denied the Lord and lost the promised land? Let us not follow the dreams of false prophets, when we have the Words of the Living God. In Jesus name. Amen.