Sundays at All Hallows (July 26, 2026)
Welcome to Sundays at All Hallows.
This Sunday is the Eighth Sunday after Trinity. This week has been a difficult one. Some parts of the country have experienced sweltering heat; others have experienced tornadoes, heavy rain, and catastrophic flooding. Yet the woes of nations around the world may eclipse those of the United States—war, famine, and an Ebola outbreak. Your prayers are asked for the people of the affected area in the United States and around the world, for the restoration of peace between Russia and Ukraine and in the Mid East, and for all persecuted Christians.
The topic of this Sunday’s message in Jesus’ teaching concerning false prophets.
GATHERING IN GOD’S NAME
Open this link to hear Claude Goudimel’s arrangement of J’AY MIS EN TOY MON [GENEVAN 31] for strings.
Silence
Savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:29-30
[Let us worship God.]
Open this link in a new tab to hear "When Morning Gilds the Skies," Edward Caswall’s translation of the anonymous German hymn, "Beim frühen Morgenlicht."
1 When morning gilds the skies,
my heart awaking cries,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
alike at work and prayer
to Jesus I repair;
may Jesus Christ be praised.
2 Whene'er the sweet church bell
peals over hill and dell,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
O hark to what it sings,
as joyously it rings,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
3 My tongue shall never tire
of chanting with the choir,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
this song of sacred joy,
it never seems to cloy,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
4 Does sadness fill my mind?
A solace here I find,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
or fades my earthly bliss?
My comfort still is this,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
*5 The night becomes as day,
when from the heart we say,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
the powers of darkness fear,
when this sweet chant they hear,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
6 Be this, while life is mine,
my canticle divine,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
be this the eternal song
through ages all along,
may Jesus Christ be praised!
*Omitted on the video.
[Let us confess our sins to God our Father]
Silence
Heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour
in thought and word and deed,
negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault;
by what we have done
and by what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ who died for us,
forgive us all that is past;
and grant that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. Amen.
Merciful Lord,
grant to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that we may be cleansed from all our sins,
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Paul Inwood’s “Holy Is God, Holy and Strong.”
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
1 Sing the Lord’s praise, ev’ry nation,
Give him all honor and glory.
Strong is his love for his people,
His faithfulness is eternal.
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
2 Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his Son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen
(Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen)
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
[Let us pray.]
Silence
Almighty God, whose never-failing providence governs all things
in heaven and earth: we humbly ask you to put away from us all
hurtful things, and to give us whatever may be profitable for us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD
A reading from the Book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 23: 16-24
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
‘Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
not from the mouth of the Lord.
They keep saying to those who despise me,
“The Lord says: you will have peace.”
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts
they say, “No harm will come to you.”
But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see or to hear his word?
Who has listened and heard his word?
See, the storm of the Lord
will burst out in wrath,
a whirlwind swirling down
on the heads of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he fully accomplishes
the purposes of his heart.
In days to come
you will understand it clearly.
I did not send these prophets,
yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them,
yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council,
they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways
and from their evil deeds.
‘Am I only a God nearby,’
declares the Lord,
‘and not a God far away?
Who can hide in secret places
so that I cannot see them?’
declares the Lord.
‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’
declares the Lord.
[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]
Silence
Open this link in a new tab to Edwin Le Grice’s “All Nations of the World” (Psalm 100).
1 All nations of the world
be joyful in the Lord:
with willing hands your Master serve with one accord:
in ceaseless praise
with heart and voice in him rejoice through all your days.
2 Be sure the Lord is God,
creation's source and spring:
in him alone we live, to him our lives we bring.
From days of old
he feeds his flock and guides the wanderers to his fold.
3 In gladness go your way:
approach his courts with song
in thankfulness to him to whom all things belong:
His name adore:
his gracious mercy, truth and love for evermore.
A reading from the Second Letter of Peter
2 Peter 2:1-3, 13-22
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed – an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – an animal without speech – who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for ‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.’ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’[g] and, ‘A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.’
[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]
Silence
Open this link in a new tab to hear Henry U. Onderdonk’s “How Wondrous and Great” (Magna et mirabilia).
1 How wondrous and great
Thy works, God of praise!
How just, King of Saints,
And true are thy ways!
Oh, who shall not fear thee
And honor thy name?
Thou only art holy,
Thou only supreme.
2 To nations of earth
Thy light shall be shown.
Their worship and vows
Shall come to thy throne.
Thy truth and thy judgments
Shall spread all abroad,
Till earth’s ev’ry people
Confess thee their God.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew.
Matthew 7: 15-21
‘Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them.
‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]
Silence
In the Bible you can find warnings against false prophets, false teachers, and false messiahs in a number of places. This Sunday’s readings are three of them. It may not be an exaggeration to say that every generation produces fresh crop of these individuals, folks who have gone astray and set on leading others astray. Or folks whose feet were never on the right path. In our day we have our share—self-proclaimed apostles and prophets, prosperity gospel preachers, social media influencers. They may be more troublesome today because telecommunication, artificial intelligence, and the internet enable them to spread their influence globally. In the past their influence may have been confined to a small following and to one or two districts. Not so today.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus warns his disciples and the others who had gathered to hear him about false prophets. According to the Bible, a true prophet is someone appointed by God to be God’s messenger and through whom God tells people what he wishes to tell them. While it may be about things that will happen in the future, it is not invariably about such things. God may call the inhabitants of a city to repent, to change their ways, as he did the people of Nineveh through the prophet Jonah.
False prophets, on the other hand, while they may claim to be God’s messenger and to have a message from God tell people what is a product of their imaginations or worse, something that they have concocted to intentionally deceive people, and which serves their own purposes and not God’s. For example, they may claim that a politician whom they support for various reasons has been anointed by God to lead the nation. They may believe their own prophesy. Or they may recognize what they are telling people is untrue but claim that it is what God told them to tell people because it affords them some advantage.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus compares false prophets to wolves disguised a sheep. Wolves are wild animals of the dog family. They are predators: They hunt, kill, and eat other animals. Wolves usually hunt in packs, but they also hunt in pairs or alone. Sheep are a grass-eating domestic animal which have thick wool and which were in the ancient Mid-East kept for their milk as well as their wool, skin, and meat. Wolves were not the only wild animals that preyed on sheep. They, however, in that day were the most familiar to those whom Jesus was addressing. They preyed on the weak—the lambs, the sick, the injured, the old—the stragglers, and those who had wandered too far from the flock.
When wolves approach grazing sheep, they do one of two things. They huddle: They draw closer together in a group. Huddling makes it harder for the wolves to snatch one of them. Or they panic. When they panic, the wolves single out the weakest, chase them down, and kill them.
Wolves disguised as sheep, indistinguishable from the sheep, could approach a flock of sheep without causing alarm. They could pick off the unsuspecting sheep at leisure. Wolves in the midst of a flock are far more dangerous than those circling around outside the flock.
Sheep are not particularly bright animals, and a shepherd must keep a close watch on them. Reaching for a tuft of grass, they have become mired in bogs, fallen of cliffs, and drowned in rivers. They are easy prey for wolves.
Jesus goes on to provide guidance on how to detect a false prophet.
If you live in the city and have never seen a grapevine or a thorn bush or a fig tree or a thistle, if the only trees you have seen were growing in a park or some other green space or lining an avenue and the only fruit you have seen was in the produce department of a neighborhood grocery store or on a street vendor’s stall or came from a tin, Jesus’ illustrations may be lost on you. A grapevine is a type of climbing plant on which grapes grow. A thorn bush is a bush or tree that has a lot of thorns, sharp, pointed growths, on it. The thorns can be quite long and sharp and will tear your clothing and your flesh if you snag yourself on them. A fig tree is a leafy tree on which figs grow. Thistle are wild plants with sharp points on their leaves. They typically have purple flowers. While some thistles are edible, others are deadly poisonous. They are a cause of continuous trouble for farmers as they can choke a field where a farmer has planted a crop, reducing the yield of the crop. They are hard to eradicate.
Healthy fruit trees will produce fruit that is not only edible but is also of top quality, the kind of fruit that you would expect that kind of fruit tree to produce. Unhealthy fruit trees, on the other hand, will produce fruit that is of poor quality and may be inedible. They may not produce any fruit at all. Just as we tell good trees from bad trees by the fruit that they produce, we can tell true prophets and false prophets apart by the fruit that they produce.
A word of caution is needed at this point. Some bad fruit resembles good fruit. For example, sweet and bitter almonds look alike on the outside. However, they taste different. Raw bitter almonds are also poisonous. They contain a toxin, amygdalin, which breaks down into cyanide. When consumed even in relatively small quantities, they will kill you. Some poison fruit may look safe and have pleasant flavor and texture. Eating them will make you very ill if it does not kill you. On the other hand, durian which smells awful is delicious and safe to eat.
When evaluating the fruit that an individual produces, one must know the difference between good fruit and bad fruit and look at the larger picture.
How do that person’s words and actions compare to those of Jesus?
Can genuine support for their words and actions be clearly found in Scripture or proved from Scripture?
Does the individual claim support for what they say or do from an obscure passage of Scripture or from a Scripture passage taken out of context?
Do they read into a Scripture passage what cannot be read out of it?
Do they allegorize a passage which is not one of the Bible’s allegories, all of which are accompanied by their interpretation?
Do they expound one passage of Scripture so that it disagrees with another?
Do they claim a special revelation from God for their words and actions.
What qualities of character does the person exhibit?
Are the good qualities in them real? Wishful thinking on our part? Do they genuinely outweigh the bad ones?
Are we ignoring their bad qualities, making excuses for them?
What kind of influence does the person exert on other people? Do they bring out the best in other people or the worst?
If the person occupies a position of leadership, what kind of culture is forming around him.
You may think of other questions.
Silence
Open this link in a new tab to hear Bob Chilcott’s choral arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision.”
[Soprano Solo]
Be thou my vision
O Lord of my heart
Be all else but naught to me
Save that thou art
Be thou my best thought
In the day and the night
Both waking and sleeping
Thy presence my light
[Full Choir]
Be thou my vision
O Lord of my heart
Be all else but naught to me
Save that thou art
Be thou my best thought
In the day and the night
Both waking and sleeping
Thy presence my light
[Basses (Sopranos)]
Be thou my wisdom (Be thou my wisdom)
Be thou my true word (Be thou my word)
[Full Choir]
Be thou ever with me, and I with me, Lord
[Sopranos (Basses)]
Be thou my great father (Be thou my fathеr)
And I thy true son (And I thy son)
[Full Choir]
Be thou in me dwеlling
And I with thee one
[Soprano Solo]
Be thou and thou only the first in my heart
O Sovereign of Heaven
My treasure thou art
[Full Choir (Soprano Solo)]
Great heart of my own heart (O Sovereign of Heaven)
Whatever befall
Still be thou my vision (Be my vision)
Still be thou my vision (Be my vision)
Be thou my vision (My vision)
Ruler of All (O ruler of all)
[Let us affirm our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.]
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father
almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER
[Let us pray for the Church and the world.]
Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may
be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal
your glory in the world.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the
ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another
and serve the common good.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation,
that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others
and to your honor and glory.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours, and grant
that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as he
loves us.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or
spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles, and
bring them the joy of your salvation.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
We commend to your mercy all who have died, that your will
for them may be fulfilled; and we pray that we may share
with all your saints in your eternal kingdom.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Faithful God,
you have promised to hear the prayers
of all who ask in Jesus’ name.
In your mercy, accept our prayers.
Give us what we have asked in faith,
according to your will:
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
[Let us give thanks to God for his goodness.]
Almighty God mercies,
we give you hearty thanks
for all your goodness and loving kindness to us
and to all people.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace; and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such a sense of all your mercies,
that our hearts may be truly thankful
and that we may praise you
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
serving you in holiness and righteousness all our days,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory,
now and for ever. Amen.
Grant to us, Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to
love that which is worth loving, to praise that which pleases
you most, to esteem that which is most precious to you, and
to dislike whatever is evil your eyes. Grant us with true judgment
to distinguish things that differ, and above all to search out, and
Savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:29-30
[Let us worship God.]
Open this link in a new tab to hear "When Morning Gilds the Skies," Edward Caswall’s translation of the anonymous German hymn, "Beim frühen Morgenlicht."
1 When morning gilds the skies,
my heart awaking cries,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
alike at work and prayer
to Jesus I repair;
may Jesus Christ be praised.
2 Whene'er the sweet church bell
peals over hill and dell,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
O hark to what it sings,
as joyously it rings,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
3 My tongue shall never tire
of chanting with the choir,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
this song of sacred joy,
it never seems to cloy,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
4 Does sadness fill my mind?
A solace here I find,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
or fades my earthly bliss?
My comfort still is this,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
*5 The night becomes as day,
when from the heart we say,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
the powers of darkness fear,
when this sweet chant they hear,
may Jesus Christ be praised.
6 Be this, while life is mine,
my canticle divine,
may Jesus Christ be praised:
be this the eternal song
through ages all along,
may Jesus Christ be praised!
*Omitted on the video.
[Let us confess our sins to God our Father]
Silence
Heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour
in thought and word and deed,
negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault;
by what we have done
and by what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ who died for us,
forgive us all that is past;
and grant that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. Amen.
Merciful Lord,
grant to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that we may be cleansed from all our sins,
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Paul Inwood’s “Holy Is God, Holy and Strong.”
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
1 Sing the Lord’s praise, ev’ry nation,
Give him all honor and glory.
Strong is his love for his people,
His faithfulness is eternal.
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
2 Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his Son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen
(Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen)
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
[Let us pray.]
Silence
Almighty God, whose never-failing providence governs all things
in heaven and earth: we humbly ask you to put away from us all
hurtful things, and to give us whatever may be profitable for us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD
A reading from the Book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 23: 16-24
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
‘Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
not from the mouth of the Lord.
They keep saying to those who despise me,
“The Lord says: you will have peace.”
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts
they say, “No harm will come to you.”
But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see or to hear his word?
Who has listened and heard his word?
See, the storm of the Lord
will burst out in wrath,
a whirlwind swirling down
on the heads of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he fully accomplishes
the purposes of his heart.
In days to come
you will understand it clearly.
I did not send these prophets,
yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them,
yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council,
they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways
and from their evil deeds.
‘Am I only a God nearby,’
declares the Lord,
‘and not a God far away?
Who can hide in secret places
so that I cannot see them?’
declares the Lord.
‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’
declares the Lord.
[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]
Silence
Open this link in a new tab to Edwin Le Grice’s “All Nations of the World” (Psalm 100).
1 All nations of the world
be joyful in the Lord:
with willing hands your Master serve with one accord:
in ceaseless praise
with heart and voice in him rejoice through all your days.
2 Be sure the Lord is God,
creation's source and spring:
in him alone we live, to him our lives we bring.
From days of old
he feeds his flock and guides the wanderers to his fold.
3 In gladness go your way:
approach his courts with song
in thankfulness to him to whom all things belong:
His name adore:
his gracious mercy, truth and love for evermore.
A reading from the Second Letter of Peter
2 Peter 2:1-3, 13-22
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed – an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – an animal without speech – who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for ‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.’ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’[g] and, ‘A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.’
[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]
Silence
Open this link in a new tab to hear Henry U. Onderdonk’s “How Wondrous and Great” (Magna et mirabilia).
1 How wondrous and great
Thy works, God of praise!
How just, King of Saints,
And true are thy ways!
Oh, who shall not fear thee
And honor thy name?
Thou only art holy,
Thou only supreme.
2 To nations of earth
Thy light shall be shown.
Their worship and vows
Shall come to thy throne.
Thy truth and thy judgments
Shall spread all abroad,
Till earth’s ev’ry people
Confess thee their God.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew.
Matthew 7: 15-21
‘Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them.
‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]
Silence
By Their Fruit You Shall Know Them
In the Bible you can find warnings against false prophets, false teachers, and false messiahs in a number of places. This Sunday’s readings are three of them. It may not be an exaggeration to say that every generation produces fresh crop of these individuals, folks who have gone astray and set on leading others astray. Or folks whose feet were never on the right path. In our day we have our share—self-proclaimed apostles and prophets, prosperity gospel preachers, social media influencers. They may be more troublesome today because telecommunication, artificial intelligence, and the internet enable them to spread their influence globally. In the past their influence may have been confined to a small following and to one or two districts. Not so today.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus warns his disciples and the others who had gathered to hear him about false prophets. According to the Bible, a true prophet is someone appointed by God to be God’s messenger and through whom God tells people what he wishes to tell them. While it may be about things that will happen in the future, it is not invariably about such things. God may call the inhabitants of a city to repent, to change their ways, as he did the people of Nineveh through the prophet Jonah.
False prophets, on the other hand, while they may claim to be God’s messenger and to have a message from God tell people what is a product of their imaginations or worse, something that they have concocted to intentionally deceive people, and which serves their own purposes and not God’s. For example, they may claim that a politician whom they support for various reasons has been anointed by God to lead the nation. They may believe their own prophesy. Or they may recognize what they are telling people is untrue but claim that it is what God told them to tell people because it affords them some advantage.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus compares false prophets to wolves disguised a sheep. Wolves are wild animals of the dog family. They are predators: They hunt, kill, and eat other animals. Wolves usually hunt in packs, but they also hunt in pairs or alone. Sheep are a grass-eating domestic animal which have thick wool and which were in the ancient Mid-East kept for their milk as well as their wool, skin, and meat. Wolves were not the only wild animals that preyed on sheep. They, however, in that day were the most familiar to those whom Jesus was addressing. They preyed on the weak—the lambs, the sick, the injured, the old—the stragglers, and those who had wandered too far from the flock.
When wolves approach grazing sheep, they do one of two things. They huddle: They draw closer together in a group. Huddling makes it harder for the wolves to snatch one of them. Or they panic. When they panic, the wolves single out the weakest, chase them down, and kill them.
Wolves disguised as sheep, indistinguishable from the sheep, could approach a flock of sheep without causing alarm. They could pick off the unsuspecting sheep at leisure. Wolves in the midst of a flock are far more dangerous than those circling around outside the flock.
Sheep are not particularly bright animals, and a shepherd must keep a close watch on them. Reaching for a tuft of grass, they have become mired in bogs, fallen of cliffs, and drowned in rivers. They are easy prey for wolves.
Jesus goes on to provide guidance on how to detect a false prophet.
If you live in the city and have never seen a grapevine or a thorn bush or a fig tree or a thistle, if the only trees you have seen were growing in a park or some other green space or lining an avenue and the only fruit you have seen was in the produce department of a neighborhood grocery store or on a street vendor’s stall or came from a tin, Jesus’ illustrations may be lost on you. A grapevine is a type of climbing plant on which grapes grow. A thorn bush is a bush or tree that has a lot of thorns, sharp, pointed growths, on it. The thorns can be quite long and sharp and will tear your clothing and your flesh if you snag yourself on them. A fig tree is a leafy tree on which figs grow. Thistle are wild plants with sharp points on their leaves. They typically have purple flowers. While some thistles are edible, others are deadly poisonous. They are a cause of continuous trouble for farmers as they can choke a field where a farmer has planted a crop, reducing the yield of the crop. They are hard to eradicate.
Healthy fruit trees will produce fruit that is not only edible but is also of top quality, the kind of fruit that you would expect that kind of fruit tree to produce. Unhealthy fruit trees, on the other hand, will produce fruit that is of poor quality and may be inedible. They may not produce any fruit at all. Just as we tell good trees from bad trees by the fruit that they produce, we can tell true prophets and false prophets apart by the fruit that they produce.
A word of caution is needed at this point. Some bad fruit resembles good fruit. For example, sweet and bitter almonds look alike on the outside. However, they taste different. Raw bitter almonds are also poisonous. They contain a toxin, amygdalin, which breaks down into cyanide. When consumed even in relatively small quantities, they will kill you. Some poison fruit may look safe and have pleasant flavor and texture. Eating them will make you very ill if it does not kill you. On the other hand, durian which smells awful is delicious and safe to eat.
When evaluating the fruit that an individual produces, one must know the difference between good fruit and bad fruit and look at the larger picture.
How do that person’s words and actions compare to those of Jesus?
Can genuine support for their words and actions be clearly found in Scripture or proved from Scripture?
Does the individual claim support for what they say or do from an obscure passage of Scripture or from a Scripture passage taken out of context?
Do they read into a Scripture passage what cannot be read out of it?
Do they allegorize a passage which is not one of the Bible’s allegories, all of which are accompanied by their interpretation?
Do they expound one passage of Scripture so that it disagrees with another?
Do they claim a special revelation from God for their words and actions.
What qualities of character does the person exhibit?
Are the good qualities in them real? Wishful thinking on our part? Do they genuinely outweigh the bad ones?
Are we ignoring their bad qualities, making excuses for them?
What kind of influence does the person exert on other people? Do they bring out the best in other people or the worst?
If the person occupies a position of leadership, what kind of culture is forming around him.
You may think of other questions.
Silence
Open this link in a new tab to hear Bob Chilcott’s choral arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision.”
[Soprano Solo]
Be thou my vision
O Lord of my heart
Be all else but naught to me
Save that thou art
Be thou my best thought
In the day and the night
Both waking and sleeping
Thy presence my light
[Full Choir]
Be thou my vision
O Lord of my heart
Be all else but naught to me
Save that thou art
Be thou my best thought
In the day and the night
Both waking and sleeping
Thy presence my light
[Basses (Sopranos)]
Be thou my wisdom (Be thou my wisdom)
Be thou my true word (Be thou my word)
[Full Choir]
Be thou ever with me, and I with me, Lord
[Sopranos (Basses)]
Be thou my great father (Be thou my fathеr)
And I thy true son (And I thy son)
[Full Choir]
Be thou in me dwеlling
And I with thee one
[Soprano Solo]
Be thou and thou only the first in my heart
O Sovereign of Heaven
My treasure thou art
[Full Choir (Soprano Solo)]
Great heart of my own heart (O Sovereign of Heaven)
Whatever befall
Still be thou my vision (Be my vision)
Still be thou my vision (Be my vision)
Be thou my vision (My vision)
Ruler of All (O ruler of all)
[Let us affirm our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.]
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father
almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER
[Let us pray for the Church and the world.]
Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may
be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal
your glory in the world.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the
ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another
and serve the common good.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation,
that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others
and to your honor and glory.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours, and grant
that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as he
loves us.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or
spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles, and
bring them the joy of your salvation.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
We commend to your mercy all who have died, that your will
for them may be fulfilled; and we pray that we may share
with all your saints in your eternal kingdom.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Faithful God,
you have promised to hear the prayers
of all who ask in Jesus’ name.
In your mercy, accept our prayers.
Give us what we have asked in faith,
according to your will:
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
[Let us give thanks to God for his goodness.]
Almighty God mercies,
we give you hearty thanks
for all your goodness and loving kindness to us
and to all people.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace; and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such a sense of all your mercies,
that our hearts may be truly thankful
and that we may praise you
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
serving you in holiness and righteousness all our days,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory,
now and for ever. Amen.
Grant to us, Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to
love that which is worth loving, to praise that which pleases
you most, to esteem that which is most precious to you, and
to dislike whatever is evil your eyes. Grant us with true judgment
to distinguish things that differ, and above all to search out, and
to do, what is well pleasing to you. Amen.
[And now as our Saviour taught us, we pray]
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Edwin Hatch’s “Breathe on Me, Breath of God.”
1 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.
2 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure;
until with thee I will one will,
to do and to endure.
3 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
till I am wholly thine;
until this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.
4 Breathe on me, Breath of God:
so shall I never die,
but live with thee the perfect life
of thine eternity.
GOING OUT AS GOD’S PEOPLE
Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and
by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by
your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service, and
live every day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus
Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Lee Fisher’s “Go in Peace, Go in Love.”
Go in peace, go in love,
May the Lord be at your side.
Go in peace, go in love,
May he ever be your guide.
May his grace overflow
And his blessing be upon you.
Go in peace, go in love,
Now and evermore,
Go in peace, go in love,
May the Lord be at your side.
Go in peace, go in love,
May he ever be your guide.
May his grace overflow
And his blessing be upon you.
Go in peace, go in love,
Now and evermore,
Amen
Amen
Amen
[And now as our Saviour taught us, we pray]
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Edwin Hatch’s “Breathe on Me, Breath of God.”
1 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.
2 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure;
until with thee I will one will,
to do and to endure.
3 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
till I am wholly thine;
until this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.
4 Breathe on me, Breath of God:
so shall I never die,
but live with thee the perfect life
of thine eternity.
GOING OUT AS GOD’S PEOPLE
Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and
by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by
your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service, and
live every day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus
Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Lee Fisher’s “Go in Peace, Go in Love.”
Go in peace, go in love,
May the Lord be at your side.
Go in peace, go in love,
May he ever be your guide.
May his grace overflow
And his blessing be upon you.
Go in peace, go in love,
Now and evermore,
Go in peace, go in love,
May the Lord be at your side.
Go in peace, go in love,
May he ever be your guide.
May his grace overflow
And his blessing be upon you.
Go in peace, go in love,
Now and evermore,
Amen
Amen
Amen
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