The Second of the
Cross/ The Fifth Sunday of Elijah
October 9 , 2011
First Reading: Deuteronomy 9:1-8
Moses said to the people: "Do not say in your heart, after the
Lord your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of
my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this
land'; whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations
that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of
your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you
going in to possess their land; but because of the wickedness of
these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before
you, and that he may confirm the word which the Lord swore to
your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
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Second Reading: Isaiah 25:1-8
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a
feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things
full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined. And he will
destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all
peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will
swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears
from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away
from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.
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The Epistle: Philippians 3:1-14
Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing
worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in
order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on
faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but
I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me
his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own;
but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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Gospel: Matthew 17:14-end
And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and
kneeling before him said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is
an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into
the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your
disciples, and they could not heal him." And Jesus answered, "O
faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you?
How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." And Jesus
rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was
cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and
said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "Because
of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith
as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move
from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be
impossible to you. But this kind does not come out except by
prayer and fasting.”
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son
of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will
kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were
greatly distressed.
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel
tax went up to Peter and said, "Does not your teacher pay the
tax?" He said, "Yes." And when he came home, Jesus spoke to him
first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of
the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?"
And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the
sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the
sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and
when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and
give it to them for me and for yourself."
