Scripture Readings

The Season After Pentecost
Proper 15 (20) in Year C
for The Sunday during 14 through 20 August

Scripture readings are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® ©1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

Alternate One:
Old Testament
Psalm

Alternate Two:
Old Testament
Psalm

Epistle Reading
Gospel Reading

Old Testament (Alternate One)

I will sing for the one I love
     a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
     on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared it of stones
     and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
     and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
     but it yielded only bad fruit.
“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
     judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could have been done for my vineyard
     than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
     why did it yield only bad?
Now I will tell you
     what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
     and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
     and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland,
     neither pruned nor cultivated,
     and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
     not to rain on it.”
The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
     is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
     are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
     for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
—Isaiah 5:1-7, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate One)

Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel,
     you who lead Joseph like a flock;
you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth
     before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
     Awaken your might;
     come and save us.
You brought a vine out of Egypt;
     you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it,
     and it took root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
     the mighty cedars with its branches.
It sent out its boughs to the Sea,
     its shoots as far as the River.
Why have you broken down its walls
     so that all who pass by pick its grapes?
Boars from the forest ravage it
     and the creatures of the field feed on it.
Return to us, O God Almighty!
     Look down from heaven and see!
Watch over this vine,
     the root your right hand has planted,
     the son you have raised up for yourself.
Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire;
     at your rebuke your people perish.
Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
     the son of man you have raised up for yourself.
Then we will not turn away from you;
     revive us, and we will call on your name.
Restore us, O LORD God Almighty;
     make your face shine upon us,
     that we may be saved.
—Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19, NIV

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Old Testament (Alternate Two)

“Am I only a God nearby,”
     declares the LORD,
“and not a God far away?
Can anyone hide in secret places
     so that I cannot see him?”
     declares the LORD.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
     declares the LORD.
     “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
—Jeremiah 23:23-29, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate Two)

God presides in the great assembly;
     he gives judgment among the “gods”:
“How long will you defend the unjust
     and show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
     maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy;
     deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
“They know nothing, they understand nothing.
     They walk about in darkness;
     all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
“I said, ‘You are “gods”;
     you are all sons of the Most High.’
But you will die like mere men;
     you will fall like every other ruler.”
Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
     for all the nations are your inheritance.
—Psalm 82, NIV

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Epistle

     By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
     By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
     By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
     And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
     These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
     Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
—Hebrews 11:29-12:2, NIV

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Gospel

[Jesus said:] “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?
—Luke 12:49-56, NIV

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