Sunday Service 4 October 2026

 
3 Oh, to know the power of Your risen life,
and to know You in Your sufferings.
To become like You in Your death, my Lord,
so with You to live and never die.

Prayers of Approach
 
We come before You, O Most High, and praise You for Your many gifts;
for the nurturing care You show us like rich soil in which we can grow;
the loving kindness You shower on us as refreshing rain,
the ways in which You feed us that we may bear fruit that will last.   
For all Your gifts we thank and praise You.
 
We come before You, O Risen Lord Jesus,
and praise You for Your many gifts;
You teach and inspire us, You call us to follow You, to care for others,
and to proclaim Your Kingdom which surpasses all earthly realms.
For all Your gifts we thank and praise You.
 
We come before You, Most Holy Spirit,
and praise You for Your many gifts;
You open the Word to us, helping us explore, understand, and obey.
You help us to love – even the unlovely – 
and inspire us to go beyond the boundaries
of the safety of our own vineyards.
For all Your gifts we thank and praise You.
 
Eternal Trinity of Love, we praise and worship You, 
and for all Your gifts we thank and praise You. Amen.
 
Prayers of Confession and Grace
 
We are the Church, God’s vineyard: planted with great care, tended and loved, watered and guarded by the Most High.
 
We were designed to be fruitful, to be a sign of life, love, and liberation in the world, to proclaim salvation and embody God’s loving kindness: yet we rejected God’s messengers, have used violence to maintain power and privilege, and have even justified murder.  
 
We await the owner’s return in trepidation, praying it’s not too late to mend our ways. Forgive us, good Lord, give us time to change, and the grace to respond. Amen
 
Press on, dear friends, towards the goal,  the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus! Trust in His faithfulness and resurrection, for your forgiveness is not earned but is a costly gift; so rejoice in the Lord, accept the forgiveness offered to you, and live a fruitful life.
 
Introduction to the Readings 
 
Three of our readings today are concerned with an image of the vineyard.  In our passage from Isaiah, the prophet sees Israel as God’s vineyard which was nurtured with great care but, yielding only sour grapes due to wilful disobedience, would be neglected by God.  The Psalmist laments and asks why God seems to have neglected the people, and our Gospel reading has Jesus’ retelling of Isaiah’s parable to show that the leaders of the people would be replaced by more faithful vintners – presumably Peter and the disciples.  As we wonder what Jesus might be telling us through that parable we hear the reading from Philippians where Paul asserts that no matter what we have, what our lineage is, the only thing we can depend on is Christ’s faithfulness.  So, we pray for illumination as we listen to God’s word for us today.
 
Prayer for Illumination
 
Enrich the poor soil of our hearts, O God, that Your word will put down roots, grow shoots, and bear good fruit in our lives. Amen.
 
Reading   Isaiah 5:1-7
 
I will 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 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. 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 rotten 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 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. For 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!
 
Hymn       verses from Psalm 80
Refrain texts © 1969, 1981, ICEL. Verses text © 1970, 1997, 1998, CCD. Music © 1996, Kevin Keil, ASCAP. Published by OCP. OneLicence No. # A-734713 
Sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
 

The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel
 

A vine from Egypt 
you transplanted; 
you drove away the nations 
and planted it. 
It put forth its foliage to the sea,
its shoots as far as the river
 
2 Why have you broken 
down its walls, 
so that every passer-by 
plucks its fruit, 
the boar from the forest 
lays it waste, 
and the beasts of the field 
feed upon it?

3 Once again, O Lord of hosts, 
look down from heaven and see; 
take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted, 
the Son of Man whom you yourself made strong.
 
4 Then we will no more 
withdraw from you; 
give us new life and we will 
call upon your name. 
O Lord, God of hosts, 
restore us. 
If your face shine upon us 
then we shall be saved.
 
Reading   St Matthew 21:33-46
 
Jesus said: “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. 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. Then 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 its fruits. 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.
 
Reading   Philippians 3: 1-14
 
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.  To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.  Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!  For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— Even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. 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 lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
 
Sermon
 
I’ve only ever seen vineyards when travelling in France and Italy.  The British climate in general has not been suitable for the large-scale production of grapes and, up here in Orkney, the grapes would shrivel up in protest at the wind! There is, however, something lovely about seeing vineyards when we travel.   We’re always surprised by how vast the vineyards are in France, how many vintners come together in cooperatives to cut the costs of winemaking, and how much time and effort, even with mechanisation, it takes to produce nice wine.  
 
Whilst the methods of growing, fertilising, and harvesting grapes may have evolved I think an ancient vintner from 700 years or so before Jesus would look at our modern-day vineyards and know what they were – even if she or he marvelled at the sheer size of them.  Those ancient farmers faced the threat of the Assyrian empire at the borders of the Jewish states of Israel and Judah.  Their prophets saw, in that threat, God’s anger.  In our first reading we see that, in response to the people’s infidelity, God would abandon the people – the vineyard – who would not be protected against the wild beasts.  The writer makes clear, in case the hearers hadn’t understood, that vineyard in the story is Israel and the injustice that then pervaded society angered God.  The cry that once came from the Jewish people in slavery in Egypt, now is raised by some oppressed by their coreligionists.  There’s a wordplay in Hebrew which most English Bibles don’t quite capture but the Jewish Publication Society’s translation does rather well: and the Lord hoped for justice but behold, injustice; for equity, but behold iniquity!”  The original hearers of this passage would, like us, be aware of their social problems.  Like us they’d know they had strayed away from what they were meant to be; like us they would probably struggle to know how to respond.  Faith in God is fine but there’s an Assyrian army out there! (Maybe now we’d wonder about Mr Putin’s forces pushing our defences, exploring our undersea cables, and testing our capabilities.)   In the passage God bemoans the time and energy put into nurturing this vineyard as it only produced sour grapes.  What if we understood this vineyard as a metaphor for the Church?  Have we produced good or sour grapes?  
 
The Psalm we sang echoes the Isaiah reading and reflects on why God had allowed the vineyard to be breached. The Psalmist might have struggled to see that the fault lay with the people just as we might cry to God asking why bad things are allowed to happen. Like the Psalmist we often forget our part (as individuals and as humanity as a whole) in making the world as it is.  
 
Jesus recast the vineyard parable making it even sharper.  This episode is in the final stages of Jesus’ ministry after his political entry into Jerusalem and after his clearing the traders from the Temple.  Both actions challenged the legitimacy of the authorities.  The passage comes immediately after an argument with the Chief Priests and Elders about the source of his own authority, is in response to their question, and involves a trap.  Their response to Jesus’ question about the fate of the wicked tenants “they will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lead the vineyard to other tenants” springs the trap for Jesus made clear that they were the bad tenants who will be evicted.  The sting in the tail of the parable was painful.
 
We should not see Jesus’ words as applying to all Jewish people but, first, to the religious leaders of the day who would be replaced by Peter and the apostles.  Parables, however, are powerful as they still speak to us.  What if we’re the bad tenants in the story? Are we filled with a prideful presumption that the story has nothing to say to us?  Christians have been tempted to rule like tyrants, believe we possess the truth –  a universal truth available without suffering which, as Paul reminds us in our reading from Philippians is not possible.   Matthew makes clear we can’t know the truth of Jesus without training to be a disciple; discipleship always involves suffering and leaves no time for deciding who’s in and who’s out! In other parables we are left to puzzle out the meaning but here Jesus makes the meaning crystal clear, and the Jewish leaders in the story understood themselves to be at the sharp end of that meaning.  
 
How good have we been at tending the Lord’s vineyard?  Is the soil we tend fertile bringing forth good fruit?  We might be tempted to see ourselves as failures – churches wither and close and that pruning can feel dreadful.  We worry the Lord is getting new tenants and, if we worry more about who’s in and who’s out than we do about our own discipleship, he just might!  Small vineyards can be fruitful if the vintners concentrate on the right things.
 
Concentrating on the right things is, of course, Paul’s concern in our final reading today from the Letter to the Philippians.  The immediate threat Paul addressed is summed up in his phrase “beware of the dogs” who seem to be adversaries from outside Philippi who might soon arrive.  It is not clear who they were – they could have been Jewish Christians, or Gentile Christians who held to the Jewish Law, or they might even be Jewish agitators wanting to win back Gentile god-fearers who had become Christians.  They argued that Gentiles needed to be circumcised; Paul calls them mutilators (perhaps thinking of the priests of Baal in 1 Kings who mutilated themselves in ecstatic frenzies).  Paul was concerned not to emphasise “the flesh” i.e. his ethnic identity, but the grace of God which comes through faith in Christ’s blood.  If one was made righteous by one’s own works there’d be no need for Jesus to have died.  Paul gave a long account of why, in ethnic “flesh” terms, he had the privileges of which the dogs would boast – but reminded his readers of the extreme gain in knowing Jesus.   Paul did not disparage his Judaism nor his former life as a Pharisee but says, instead, what he has gained in Jesus surpasses even that.  Paul was teaching that one can’t rely on externals to show that one is part of the Covenant people – not even with his impressive list of what he had come to see as externals.  Participating in the suffering of the Crucified Christ through the hardships and imprisonments Paul faced meant he was qualified for a share in the resurrection.  
 
That’s hard; we might prefer to show off external factors than the dreadful idea of having to participate in Christ’s suffering.  We’re an Easter people after all!  It is easier to rely on our membership of the Church, involvement in its life (and, of course, its rotas) more than we rely on Christ’s faithful example.  It is easier to believe that somehow we have to earn our salvation rather than trust in God.  It is easier to dwell on Paul’s command to rejoice than his words about having to share in Christ’s passion. We enjoy sharing the resurrection, of course, but taking up our crosses in a journey of discipleship, where we have to sacrifice, is not something we relish; it is very counter cultural to how our society and, I have to say, how the contemporary Church thinks.
 
So, what, in our corners of the vineyard, do we make of this parable and Paul’s words?  Are we producing good or sour fruit?  Are we attending to our discipleship or nit picking, squabbling, and disputing over inconsequential things?  What threats might there be to the Church that are about how we’ve neglected to do our jobs well (just as the vintners in the parables neglected theirs?).  
 
How one answers these questions might depend on our theological presuppositions.  Very conservative Christians might say the contemporary Church has given into the spirit of the age with concerns about equality and inclusion.  A small group of renegade monks here in Orkney have just been excommunicated from the Catholic Church which they see as irredeemably liberal with a heretical pope.  In concerns are around being nice to Jews and Protestants and not having the liturgy in Latin anymore.  More liberal Christians might say the contemporary Church is too judgemental and alienates more folk than it attracts.  Perhaps a middle way might be that we can get carried away with the spirit of the age and distracted from our core identity and function to glorify God through worship and service.  It is in wrestling with these questions of how we best produce good fruit we can learn from these parables as we see how the surpassing value of knowing Jesus changes ourselves, our church, and our world.  Let’s pray:
 
Good Lord, You raise the fallen, cheer the faint hearted,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. 
Just and holy is Your name!
Help us to follow Your example, 
that the fruit we produce will speak of life, cheer, healing, and leadership 
in ways of justice – which is true holiness. Amen.
 
Hymn       Jesus Lover of My Soul
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) Public Domain 
250 Voice Mass Choir St Andrew’s Kirk, Chennai, used with permission
 

Jesus, lover of my soul,
let me to Thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high;
hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
‘till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide,
O receive my soul at last!
 
2 Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed,
all my help from Thee I bring;
cover my defenceless head
with the shadow of Thy wing.
 
3 Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.

4 Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art;
freely let me take of Thee;
spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity.

 
Affirmation of Faith
 
Let us proclaim the faith of the Church through the ages: 
 
We believe in the one and only God, Eternal Trinity, 
from whom, through whom and for whom all created things exist. 
God alone we worship; in God we put our trust. 
 
We worship God, source and sustainer of creation, 
whom Jesus called Father, whose sons and daughters we are. 
 
We worship God revealed in Jesus Christ, 
who lived our human life, died for sinners on the Cross; 
who was raised from the dead, 
and proclaimed by the apostles, Son of God; 
who lives eternally, as saviour and sovereign, 
coming in judgement and mercy, to bring us to eternal life. 
 
We worship God, ever present in the Holy Spirit; 
who brings this Gospel to fruition, assures us of forgiveness, 
strengthens us to do God’s will, 
and makes us sisters and brothers of Jesus, sons and daughters of God. 
 
We believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, 
united in heaven and on earth: on earth, the Body of Christ, 
empowered by the Spirit to glorify God and to serve humanity; 
in heaven, eternally one with the power, 
the wisdom and the love of God in Trinity. 
 
We believe that, in the fullness of time, God will renew and gather in one 
all things in heaven and on earth through Christ, 
and be perfectly honoured and adored. 
We rejoice in God who has given us being, 
who shares our humanity to bring us to glory, 
our source of prayer and power of praise; 
to whom be glory, praise and adoration,  
now and evermore. Amen.
 
Intercessions
 
We bring our prayers to God for the world, the Church and ourselves.  
Let us pray.
 
O Most High, You tend the world as a vinedresser tends her vineyard,
caring for the vines, measuring nutrients, clearing weeds, 
and pruning dead wood to ensure a good harvest.
We pray for all who tend the land growing food for us to eat,
battling a changing climate and all the pressure that brings.
We pray too for farmers seeking a fair price for their crops,
and scientists learning how we can adapt to new difficult realities.
And for ourselves, Most High, 
help us to adjust our habits and expectations,
that we eat more sustainably and adapt to the changing world.
 
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
O Risen Lord, Your power is only truly known in weakness;
Your peace comes to us through the violence of the Cross,
Your welcome is broad, but Your way is narrow.  
Give us the grace to follow You, 
to count our possessions, wealth, status and security as loss
when compared to the treasure that is ours in knowing You.  
Help us to hear Your parables afresh,
to see where we’ve been wicked tenants,
and to change our ways before we’re replaced.
 
Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
Most Holy Spirit, You fill the earth with Your loving energy,
You sustain all that is, lead us to know the truth, and guide us into life.
Bless those we know and love who are in any kind of need…
and bless us as we seek to be better disciples….
 
Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
Eternal Trinty of Love, hear our cries as we pray as Jesus taught saying Our Father…
 
Offertory 
 
We show our faith in so many ways – coming to worship is but one.  How we live our lives, how we treat others, showing love to the lovely and unlovely alike and demonstrating, in love and action, the grace of God.  We also show our faith through our giving.  When we spend time with another needing our help, love, presence, and support we’re giving.  When we are inconvenienced to go to another’s aid we’re showing our faith.  When we sit with the dying and walk with the living we’re showing our faith.  Of course, when we give money to charities at home and abroad, and to the church whether in the little envelopes, direct to the bank or in the plate we’re giving and embodying our faith.  So, let’s give thanks for all that’s given.
 
God of every blessing, 
we thank You for the gifts that abound in this congregation,
gifts of love and labour, time and tenderness, 
care and creativity, genius and generosity.
Bless our gifts, help us to use them wisely,
that Your loving kindness may be embodied here.  Amen.
 
Hymn                Jesus Saviour, Lord Now To You I Fly, Saranam  
© 1990, 2000 Christian Conference of Asia, admin. GIA Publication, Inc. (revision); Trad. Ingl. © 1963, arreg. © 1989 Christian Conference of Asia, admin. by GIA Publications Sung by the Infinite Journey Praise Band  OneLicence No. # A-734713
 

Saranam is a Sanskrit and Pali word meaning “refuge”
 
Jesus, Saviour, Lord, lo, to Thee I fly;
Saranam, Saranam, Saranam;
Thou the Rock, my Refuge that’s higher than I:
Saranam, Saranam, Saranam.

Holy Communion
 
Invitation 
 
Let us celebrate this joyful feast.  People will come from east and west and north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God.  
 
Jesus said: I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,  and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.  Anyone who comes to me I will never turn away. 
 
Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.  Through your goodness we have this bread to offer,  which earth has given and human hands have made. May it become for us the bread of life. Blessed be God for ever.
 
Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.  Through your goodness we have this wine to offer,  fruit of the vine and the work of human hands. 
May it become for us the cup of salvation. Blessed be God for ever.
 
Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have ourselves to offer, fruit of the womb, and formed by your love. 
May we become your servants in the world.  Blessed be God for ever. 
 
Narrative of the Institution 
 
Hear the narrative of the institution of the Lord’s Supper as it is recorded by St Paul. 
 
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me’. In the same way he took the cup also, after Supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,  you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 

Prayer of Thanksgiving 
 
Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. 
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
 
We offer you thanks, Creator, Saviour, Giver of Life. 
From the beginning you have made yourself known: 
the heavens proclaim your glory and the earth sings your praise. 
In wisdom you made all that is and you bless us with earth’s fruitfulness. You are merciful and gracious, and abounding in love. 
Long ago you called to yourself a people 
to shine as light to guide all nations to your presence. 
You led them to freedom; 
you revealed to them your Law and taught them through your prophets. Finally, you sent your promised Son, Jesus Christ, 
who shared our human nature and understood our weakness. 
Born of Mary, he showed forth your love by word and sign. 
Therefore, with all your people in heaven and on earth 
we sing the triumphant hymn of your glory:
 
The Slane Sanctus
Michael Forster © 1993, 1995, Kevin Mayhew Ltd
Vocalist Lucy Bunce, OneLicence OneLicence No. # A-734713
 
Holy, most holy, all holy the Lord,
in power and wisdom for ever adored.
The earth and the heaves are full of your love;
our joyful hosannas re-echo above.
 
Blessèd, most blessèd, all blessed is he,
whose life makes us whole, and whose death sets us free;
who comes in the name of the Father of light,
let endless hosannas resound in the height.
 
He sought the unloved and the lost and welcomed all who came to him; 
he taught us lessons of forgiveness he brought us healing for our sickness, 
and showed us how to live according to your will. 
For this he was rejected, for this he endured grief and sorrow, 
for this he gave himself up to death upon the Cross. 
But you broke the power of sin and death and raised him to the heights, 
that through the blood of his Cross and by the gift of the Holy Spirit 
everything in earth and heaven might be reconciled to you. 
 
Let us proclaim the mystery of faith: 
 
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
 
Come, Creator God: renew the face of the earth; 
come, eternal Saviour: remake us in your likeness; 
come, Holy Spirit, transform these gifts: 
that Christ may be known to us in the breaking of the bread 
and that we may be strengthened to serve him in the world. 
May we on earth be one with all Christ’s people, 
and, when all things are complete, be raised up to be with him, 
and with all your faithful servants in the heavenly places, 
the homeland which we seek by faith, 
and where he reigns in glory, with you, Father, and the Holy Spirit, 
one God for ever. Amen.
 
Holy things for a holy people. 
Only one is holy, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are made holy in him.
 
The bread of heaven in Christ Jesus. 
The cup of salvation in Christ Jesus.
 
Music for Communion    You Satisfy the Hungry Heart
Omer Westerndorf   © 1977 by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia  OneLicence No. # A-734713 sung by the 7pm Choir of St Francis De Sales Parish, Ajax, Ontario, Canada and used with their kind permission
 
Post Communion Prayer
 
God of a love stronger than death, 
you have given us new birth into a living hope 
through the gift of your Son. 
God with us, like a mother you have fed us with yourself 
and strengthened us for journeying ahead. 
God of truth and power, 
you take our weakness and our sin and refashion us by grace. 
Gracious God, may the love which bids us welcome at this table 
gather all your children into one, in your eternal presence, 
whole and free at last. Amen.
 
Hymn                Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation
7th or 8th Century translated by John M Neale (1818-1866) Sung by the Choir of North Stoneham and Bassett Parish Church and used with their kind permission.