The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Old Testament
Isaiah 5:1-7
Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice,
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness,
but heard a cry!
The Psalm
Psalm 80 or 80:7-14 Page 702, 703, BCP
Qui regis Israel
1
Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *
shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.2
In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *
stir up your strength and come to help us.3
Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.4
O LORD God of hosts, *
how long will you be angered
despite the prayers of your people?5
You have fed them with the bread of tears; *
you have given them bowls of tears to drink.6
You have made us the derision of our neighbors, *
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.7
Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.8
You have brought a vine out of Egypt; *
you cast out the nations and planted it.9
You prepared the ground for it; *
it took root and filled the land.10
The mountains were covered by its shadow *
and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.11
You stretched out its tendrils to the Sea *
and its branches to the River.12
Why have you broken down its wall, *
so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?13
The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it, *
and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.14
Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven;
behold and tend this vine; *
preserve what your right hand has planted.15
They burn it with fire like rubbish; *
at the rebuke of your countenance let them perish.16
Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, *
the son of man you have made so strong for yourself.17
And so will we never turn away from you; *
give us life, that we may call upon your Name.18
Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
The Epistle
Philippians 3:14-21
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
The Gospel
Matthew 21:33-43
Jesus said, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, `They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
`The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
