The song of the vineyard
5:1I will sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
5:2He 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.
5:3And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
5:4What 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?
5:5And 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.
5:6I 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.
5:7For 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!
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19
O God, tend this vine
80:1Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
80:2before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!
80:8You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
80:9You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
80:10The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
80:11it sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River.
80:12Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
80:13The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
80:14Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see; have regard for this vine, 80:15 the stock that your right hand planted.
80:16It has been burned with fire; it has been cut down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
80:17But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.
80:18Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
80:19Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
Hebrews 12:18-29 & Luke 13:10-17
12:18You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,
12:19and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.
12:20(For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.”
12:21Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”)
12:22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
12:23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
12:24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
12:25See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!
12:26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”
12:27This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken–that is, created things–so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
12:28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe,
12:29for indeed our God is a consuming fire.
Luke 13:10-17
Jesus heals on the sabbath
13:10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
13:11And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
13:12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
13:13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
13:14But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.”
13:15But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?
13:16And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”
13:17When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.
Pastor Jim on vacation – Rev. Sue Burwell preaching