FIRST
READING: Amos
9: 11 - 15
11
On that day I shall restore the fallen hut of David and wall up its
breaches and raise its ruined walls and so build it as in days of
old.
12
They shall conquer the remnant of Edom and the neighboring nations
upon which my name has been called." Thus says Yahweh, the one
who will do this.
13
Yahweh says also, "The days are coming when the plowman will
overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes overtake the sower. The
mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall melt.
14
I shall bring back the exiles of my people Israel; they will rebuild
the desolate cities and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and
drink their wine; they will have orchards and eat their fruit.
15
I shall plant them in their own country and they shall never again be
rooted up from the land which I have given them," says Yahweh
your God.
PSALM:
Psalms 85:
9 - 14
9
Would that I hear God's proclamation, that he promise peace to his
people, his saints - lest they come back to their folly.
10
Yet his salvation is near to those who fear him, and his Glory will
dwell in our land.
11
Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have
embraced.
12
Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down
from heaven.
13
The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit.
14
Justice will go before him, and peace will follow along his path.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 9:
14 - 17
14
Then the disciples of John came to him with the question, "How
is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your
disciples?"
15
Jesus answered them, "How can you expect wedding guests to mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them? Time will come when the
bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast.
16
No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the
patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat.
17
Besides you don't put new wine in old wineskins. If you do, the
wineskins will burst and the wine be spilt. No, you put new wine in
fresh skins; then both are preserved."
