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A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (5:1-7).
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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; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men 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 looked for 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 briers and thorns shall grow up; 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 men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
Psalm 80:7-15.
7. Turn us again, thou God of hosts; *
show the light of thy countenance,
and we shall be whole.
8. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; *
thou hast cast out the heathen,
and planted it.
9. Thou madest room for it; *
and when it had taken root, it filled the land.
10. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, *
and the boughs thereof were like
the goodly cedar-trees.
11. She stretched out her branches unto the sea, *
and her boughs unto the River.
12. Why hast thou then broken down her hedge, *
that all they that go by pluck off her grapes?
13. The wild boar out of the wood
doth root it up, *
and the wild beasts of the field devour it.
14. Turn thee again, thou God of hosts,
look down from heaven, *
behold, and visit this vine;
15. And the place of the vineyard
that thy right hand hath planted, *
and the branch that thou madest
so strong for thyself.
A Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians (3:14-21)
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I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way; and if in anything you think otherwise God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. Matthew (21:33-441-16)
Jesus said, “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 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 have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore 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 let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 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 marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”