Proper 22
week of the Sunday closest to October 5

Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of thy mercy, forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Isaiah 5:1-7
I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

"Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Second Lesson: Philippians 3:14-21
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Psalm: 80

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.

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43
"Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"

"He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time."

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"

"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit."

Collect & Psalm from the Book of Common Prayer
Other excerpts from the New International Bible

Sts. Vidicon & Isidore