The Tablets of Law

Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum

Bethesda, Maryland

http://www.ratnermuseum.com/?page=exodus#

than they do upon its enforcement.

~ Calvin Coolidge 

 

October 4, 2020   Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

 

* Another presidential quote:

                I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments

                would have looked like if Moses 

          had run them through the US Congress.

                                                                   ~ Ronald Reagan 

 

 

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 watch-tower in the midst of it,
      and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
   but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
   and people 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 expected 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 it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
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 people of Judah
   are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice, but saw bloodshed;
   righteousness, but heard a cry!

Isaiah 5:1-7

 

 

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 with
Psalm 19 or
Isaiah 5:1-7 with Psalm 80:7-15
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46

 

 

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labor and do all your work. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."

with

Psalm 19

The heavens are telling
   the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims
   God's handiwork.

Day to day pours forth
   speech,
and night to night declares
   knowledge.

There is no speech,
   nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;

yet their voice goes out
   through all the earth,
and their words to the end
   of the world.

In the heavens God has set
   a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a beloved
   from a wedding canopy,
and like an athlete runs its course
   with joy.
Its rising is from the end
   of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end
   of them;
and nothing is hid
   from its heat.

The law of God is perfect,
   reviving the soul;
the decrees of God are sure,
   making wise the simple;
the precepts of God are right,
   rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of God is clear,
   enlightening the eyes;
the fear of God is pure,
   enduring forever;
the ordinances of God are true
   and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they
   than gold,
even much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey,
   and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover by them
   is your servant warned;
in keeping them
   there is great reward.
But who can detect their errors?
   Clear me from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also
   from the insolent;
do not let them have dominion
   over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
   and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth
   and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
   O God, my rock and my redeemer.

or

Isaiah 5:1-7

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 watch-tower in the midst of it,
      and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
   but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
   and people 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 expected 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 it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
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 people of Judah
   are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice, but saw bloodshed;
   righteousness, but heard a cry!

with

Psalm 80:7-15

Restore us,
   O God of hosts;
let your face shine,
   that we may be saved.
You brought a vine
   out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations
   and planted it.

You cleared the ground
   for it;
it took deep root
   and filled the land.
The mountains were covered
   with its shade,
the mighty cedars
   with its branches;
it sent out its branches
   to the sea,
and its shoots to the River.

Why then have you broken down
   its walls,
so that all who pass along the way
   pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest
   ravages it,
and all that move in the field
   feed upon it.

Turn again,
   O God of hosts;
look down from heaven,
   and see;
have regard
   for this vine,
the stock that your strong hand
   planted.

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 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; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 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 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. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 21:33-46

[And Jesus said:] "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 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 get his inheritance.' So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when 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 lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time."

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'?
"Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

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