Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity/Creationtide 3 and Harvest/Thanksgiving

Readings: 

Joel 2.21–27

21 Do not fear, O soil;    be glad and rejoice,    for the Lord has done great things! 22 Do not fear, you animals of the field,    for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit,    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

23 O children of Zion, be glad    and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication,    he has poured down for you abundant rain,    the early and the later rain, as before. 24 The threshing-floors shall be full of grain,    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 I will repay you for the years    that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,    my great army, which I sent against you.

26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,    and praise the name of the Lord your God,    who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,    and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again    be put to shame.

1 Timothy 6.6–10

6There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 9But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Gospel Reading:

Matthew 6.25–33

25 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?”32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’