Sunday between 2 and 8 October
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
First Reading - Isaiah 5.1-7
A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. Let me sing a love-song for my vineyard. On a fertile hill, I dug the ground, cleared the stones, and planted the choicest vines. I dug a wine-press, and built a tower, and I expected the finest grapes. But when the fruit came, it was bitter. So now, people of Judah and Jerusalem, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could I have done for my vineyard? And yet it yielded only bitterness. So now, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and break down its wall, and it will be destroyed, and trampled down. I will make it a waste-land. No longer will it be pruned or tended. It will be overgrown with brambles and thorns. I will order the clouds to give it no rain. And my vineyard is the people I had called to myself, says the Lord. And they are the vines that I planted and cherished. But when I looked for justice, I saw bloodshed. When I looked for righteousness, I heard cries of distress. This is the word of the Lord.Second Reading - Philippians 3.4-12
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians. If anyone had reason to be confident, I had more. I was a descendant of Jacob, in the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, born of Hebrews. In the observation of the law, I was a Pharisee. In zeal, I was a persecutor of the church. In righteousness according to the law, I was blameless. And yet I regard all these things as worthless now, for nothing has any value at all compared to knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. For the sake of Christ, I have lost everything.But I count this loss as nothing,
for what I have gained
is Christ.
United with Christ, I depend
no more
on a righteousness of my own,
derived from the law,
for I have instead
a righteousness
that comes from God,
through faith in Christ.
And so, leaving behind
all that has gone before,
I now press on towards the goal
of knowing Christ more fully,
and the power of his resurrection;
sharing in his sufferings, and even
becoming like him in his death,
if somehow then
I may share
in his resurrection from the dead.
All this I choose, just as Christ
has chosen me.
This is the word of the Lord.