Readings for December 16, 2027: Thursday of the 26th week after Pentecost

1 This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work. 2 The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; 3 not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; 5 (for how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule his own house take care of God’s assembly?) 6 not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil. 8 Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. 10 Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless. 11 Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. 12 Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. 13 For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

9 He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time. 10 At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty. 11 He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12 He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him and threw him out. 13 The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’ 14 “But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 Then they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard that, they said, “May that never be!” 17 But he looked at them and said, “Then what is this that is written, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the chief cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”