SUNDAY, OCTOER 4TH, 2026​​

19TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

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INTRODUCTION​

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells a vineyard parable, which serves as an
     image of Israel, the prophets’ mission, and Christ’s death. For Christians, the
     vineyard also speaks of God’s love poured out in the blood of Christ, given to us
     for the forgiveness of sin. Grafted onto Christ the vine at baptism, we are
     nourished with wine and bread so that we may share Christ’s sufferings and
     know the power of his resurrection.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Beloved God, from you come all things that are good. Lead us by the inspiration
     of your Spirit to know those things that are right, and by your merciful guidance,
     help us to do them, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.​

FIRST READING

ISAIAH 5:1-7
The prophet sings a sad, parable-like love song about the relationship between
     God and Israel. In this song Israel is compared to a promising vineyard. Despite
     God’s loving care, the vineyard that is Israel has brought forth “rotten grapes” of
     injustice and distress, when fine grapes of justice and righteousness were expected.

1 I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 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 rotten grapes.

3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
4 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 rotten grapes?

  5 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.
  6 I will make it a wasteland;
  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.

  7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
  is the house of Israel,
  and the people of Judah
  are his cherished garden;
  he expected justice
  but saw bloodshed;
  righteousness

​     but heard a cry!

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PSALM

PSALM 80:7-15
(Response) Look down from heaven, O God; behold and tend this vine. (Ps. 80:14, 15)

7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine upon us, and we shall be saved.
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
you cast out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared 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.
(Response) Look down from heaven, O God; behold and tend this vine. (Ps. 80:14, 15)

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;
15 behold and tend this vine;
preserve what your right hand has planted.

(Response) Look down from heaven, O God; behold and tend this vine. (Ps. 80:14, 15)

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SECOND READING

PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14
Paul reviews some of his supposed credentials, which no longer have any
     bearing in comparison to the right relationship he has been given through the
     death of Christ. The power of Christ’s resurrection motivates him to press on
     toward the ultimate goal, eternal life with Christ.

[Paul writes:] 4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have
     more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the
     tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to
     zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
     7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of
     Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing
     value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of
     all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be
     found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but
     one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on
     faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing
     of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the
     resurrection from the dead.

     12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I
     press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and
     sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold
     of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press
     on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

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​​​​GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Alleluia. Jesus says, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last. Alleluia. (John 15:16)

GOSPEL READING

MATTHEW 21:33-46
Jesus tells a parable to the religious leaders who are plotting his death, revealing
     that their plans will, ironically, bring about the fulfillment of scripture.

[Jesus said:] 33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a
     vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.
     Then he leased it to tenants and went away. 34 When the harvest time had come,
     he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized
     his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent
     other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 37 Then
     he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the
     tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill
     him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the
     vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will
     he do to those tenants?” 41 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.”
      42 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’?
     43 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and
     given to a people that produces its fruits. 44 The one who falls on this stone will
     be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

     45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized
     that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared
     the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.​

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