2026-10-04 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Opening Prayer

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lord God, Vine dresser of your people, 

You planted your vineyard with love,
you cleared the ground, set a wall around it,
and were right to hope for good grapes.
Open our hearts today as good soil to receive your Word.

Give us ears to hear the song of your lost flock,
and eyes to see how little we are doing for them.
Show us where we are yielding wild grapes
and spur us instead toward justice and righteousness.
Save us from the pride of the tenants who kept for themselves
what was your gifts given freely to us to do your will.

Father, you sent  the prophets,  your only begotten Son and many holy men and women,
whom we rejected and cast out,
Remind us again and again that your only begotten Son our Lord and Redeemer has became the cornerstone.
Let us not resist his call to show mercy and compassion, but welcome his lost sheep with a generous spirit of caring and sharing.

Holy Spirit, still my mind and calm my restless fears, anxieties and thoughts.
Teach us to abide in Christ, the true Vine,
that we all may bear fruit that will last,
for the honor, praise and glory of God and for the good of his people.

Good and gracious God, speak, for your servants who are now listening. Amen.  

 

Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be...

 

Prayer for healing: Heavenly Father, we surrender our loved one and friends who are in need of healing to your loving care and miraculous healing. May the life-giving powers of your touch flow into every cell of their bodies and into the very depth of their souls, cleansing, purifying, and restoring them to wholeness and full life. Grant them the strength, courage, and patience to endure their suffering. Help them to accept God's will and to find peace in His love. At this time we lift up the following people: Chrissy, Eunice Kim, Iris Simon, Eloise Dutil, George Horton, Don Mamayek, Janet Schaffer, Bernice Comfort, John and Buddy Fox, Abbi, Debbie, EJ, Gretchen, Bob and Aida Heller, Lynn, Patti Sharrow, Jill,  ... whom else should we pray for ...

  

Practice of faith from last week

• How are you praying or what are you doing to increase the grace of humility?
• Think of a time when you did not believe in the promises of Christ. How did you navigate it? How could you do so going forward?

 

Introduction 

The image of God as gardener (vinedresser) and the people as the garden or vineyard is found in many places in the Bible including today's readings, The central spiritual theme which this Sunday's readings highlight is the illusion of ownership. 

 

In the Gospel of Matthew 21:33-43 called the Parable of the Wicked Tenant, the landowner builds a vineyard, sets up the wine press, erects a watchtower, then leased it out to tenants. Everything the tenants had was a gift entrusted to them by the landowner.

 

Reaping the rewards of the gift, the tenants start behaving like owners of the vineyard who were perfectly entitled to keep the rewards of the vineyard 

Bishop Barron explains that Jesus was addressing the leaders and faithful directly from the "Song of the Vineyard" in Isaiah 5 - but Jesus's warning apply just as much today

The audience should have no difficulty in recognising the main players of the Parable of the Wicked Tenant:   

• The Landowner: God the Father.
• The Vineyard: Israel (and, expanded out, creation itself). Is meant to be fruitful, protected by God's laws as walls and a tower to keep out evil. The wine press that draws wine forth from the grapes is the faithful life pleasing to God - which the owner wants to claim from the tenants.
• The Servants: God's prophets sent throughout salvation history to gather up the harvest of Israel, who were repeatedly rejected, beaten, and killed by those who usurped authority.
• The Son: Jesus Himself is sent - not as a spokesperson but one who is the son of the living God, one with the Father. 
• The Tenants: We don't own anything, everything comes as a gift from God - our life itself is given by God to serve a purpose he has for each of us. Yet the tenants instead of being good steward, instead assume ownership and plot to kill the heir to seize the inheritance for themselves, directly foretelling Christ’s crucifixion where he was dragged outside the walls of Jerusalem and killed on the cross.

The stark warning of Jesus is that if we remove God from our lives we effectively kill God, and what results is secular humanism where people don't rely on their faith in God but base their moral ethics and decisions on human reason and human understanding of right and wrong. This inevitably results in humans assuming ownership of the Earth and all its riches for the exclusive benefit of self. 

Isaiah 5:1-7 aka The Song of the Vineyard

After King David's son Solomon died, Israel was divided into two nations due to the apostasy (abandonment of one's religious beliefs) practised by the wisest of men Solomon under the influence of his many wives in the latter part of his reign.  The ten northern tribes were collectively known as Israel.  In 722 B.C., Assyria put down a revolt in Israel and deported large numbers of its people to Assyria, after which it repopulated the area with other peoples (2 Kings 17).  The people of Israel became so assimilated after that time that Israel ceased to exist as a nation or a people. The southern two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) collectively were known as Judah and it was to them that the Song of the Vineyard was written as a dire warning by Isaiah a Hebrew prophet, revered today by Jews, Christians and Muslims, who lived in the kingdom of Judah in the 8th century BCE, active roughly from about 740 to 700 BCE during the reigns of kings such as Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His messages combine warnings of judgement against Judah's injustice, idolatry, and reliance on foreign alliances with promises of restoration and hope, which Christians have traditionally read as pointing to Jesus

Today's reading begins with the words, “Let me sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard” (verse 1). At first blush, this sounds like a tender song set in an idyllic pastoral setting. The best location had been selected “on a very fertile hill” (verse 1). The owner had exerted maximal effort and exhibited good judgment (verse 2). Every care had been taken to ensure the best possible outcome, clearing the area of stones, planting the choicest vines, and building a protective structure but the crop had not produced good fruit

But then comes a sharp rebuke, shifting attention away from the friend to his failing vineyard: “He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes.” The vineyard is a metaphor for the people of Judah, who are being indicted for their failure to enact justice and righteousness (verse 7). Yet despite the change in tone, the psalmist continues to emphasize the relational nature of the story, calling the people of Judah the Lord’s “cherished garden” (verse 7). Their crime is their failure to exhibit care and protection for the vulnerable. They have failed to create conditions in which all can flourish. Sounds familiar, it should!

 

Psalm 80

Psalm 80 is a communal lament written in response to a disaster, most likely the fall and exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The lament is dire, yet full of hope. Repeatedly, it calls on God to “restore” and “save” (verses 2, 3, 7, 19), to “turn again” (verse 14) and “give us life” (verse 18). The psalm opens with a plea to God, the “Shepherd of Israel” (verses 1–3), to restore his people. It names God’s anger as the problem, resulting in the suffering of the people (verses 4–6) and follows a plea for restoration (verse 7).
Today's psalm  is a retelling of Israel’s history, the vine flourished under God’s care and became a blessing to all around it. But something went wrong - the people broke Abraham's covenant with God and turned away from him so God broke down the walls that protected the vineyard. Predators trampled the vines and ate the fruit (verses 12–16). The psalm concludes with a prayer for Israel’s restoration (verses 17–19), asking that God may once more shine on the people and save them. The lectionary text includes both the plea for restoration (verse 7) and the parable of the vine (verses 7–15).

 

Philippians 4:6-9

Bishop Robert Barron highlights Paul’s advice in Philippians 4:6–9 where he provides a practical roadmap for the meaningful spiritual life.
1. Surrendering Anxiety Through Prayer (v.6): “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.”
Bishop Barron emphasizes that anxiety usually comes from trying to control things that are beyond our power, anchoring our plans on our own understanding and means. Prayer is a deliberate act of surrender to God who is the primary and ultimate source of all good.

2. The Peace That Surpasses Understanding (v.7) “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Bishop Barron draws the distinction between worldly tranquility (which depends on favorable circumstances) and the deeply satisfying "peace of God" that transcends our worldly problems and anxieties because when our hearts are rooted in God, his peace acts as a protective shield against outer chaos and inner turmoil

3. Surrounding the Mind with Truth, Goodness, and Beauty (vv. 8–9) “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious... think about these things.”
St Paul believes that our spiritual well-being depends on what we feed our minds. Surrounding ourselves with noble art, holy thoughts, sound philosophy, and noble actions shapes our interior life bringing with it the peace of God.
Source: https://www.wordonfire.org/videos/sermons/peace-beyond-understanding/

Matthew 21:33–43 aka the Parable of the Wicked Tenants of the Vineyard

Matthew 21:33–43, Jesus tells the Parable of the Wicked Tenants of the vineyard.

Bishop Barron notes that the root of all spiritual dysfunction is forgetting we are tenants and start acting like owners. When we convince ourselves that our lives, talents, world, and gifts belong strictly to us rather than to God, we resist returning the "fruits" (gratitude, justice, love) to its rightful source.
Quoting Psalm 118, Jesus warns that the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. Barron highlights this as a classic theme of divine reversal: what human sin and arrogance dismisses or seeks to destroy, God uses as the very foundation of salvation and the Church.

Source: https://www.wordonfire.org/videos/sermons/parable-of-the-tenants/

Practice of faith for this week

1. In prayer today bring your anxieties to God - think about the rice paper on which you write your anxieties and then put it in a bowl of water and watch it dissolve as God takes away your burden. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” [Mt 11:28]
2. Who has been a living witness of the peace of God - identify them and acknowledge them
3. Consider Paul's three steps to a fruitful spiritual life - pray on things, experiences or people who meet those standards 

Closing Prayer

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lord God, faithful Vine dresser,
thank you for the Word we heard today in this time of prayer.
You have tended us with patience and a forgiving heart,
and you continue to hope for good fruit from our lives.
Where your Word has revealed wild grapes, give us the grace of repentance;
where it has shown your tender care, give me a persistent and trusting heart to keeping more of the same.

Father, you sent your only begotten Son, our Lord and Redeemer to save us,
and though he was rejected, he became the cornerstone.
Make us all faithful tenants of your vineyard: let us give back to you what is yours,
and never claim as our own what you have freely given.

Jesus, true Vine, keep us forever united to you - for without you we are nothing but chaff.

Prune whatever keeps us from bearing fruit, and let your life flow through us,
that we may bring justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in the world you have entrusted to us.

Holy Spirit, carry this Word from our minds to our hearts,
and from our hearts into our actions.
Let us bear good fruit in the days ahead in compassion, mercy, patience, kindness, and peace.

Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us,
that we may hear and act on the Word of God and keep it as the only moral compass of our lives.

Lord, may the fruit of today's Word remain in us. Amen.

  

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.