Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

For the choir director; a psalm by David.

Gifts for Use in the Tent of Meeting^(A)

25 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites to choose something to give me as a special contribution. You must accept whatever contribution each person freely gives. ³ This is the kind of contribution you will accept from them: gold, silver, and bronze, ⁴ violet, purple, and bright red yarn, fine linen, goats’ hair, ⁵ rams’ skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood, ⁶ olive oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense, ⁷ onyx stones, and other precious stones to be set in the ⌞chief priest’s⌟ ephod ^[a] and his breastplate.

⁸ “Then have them make a holy place for me, and I will live among them. ⁹ Make the tent and all its furnishings exactly like the plans I am showing you.

The Ark^(B)

¹⁰ “Make an ark of acacia wood 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high. ¹¹ Cover it with pure gold inside and out, and put a gold molding around it. ¹² Cast four gold rings for it, and fasten them to its four feet, two rings on each side. ¹³ Make poles of acacia wood, and cover them with gold. ¹⁴ Put the poles through the rings on the sides of the ark in order to carry it. ¹⁵ The poles must stay in the rings of the ark. Never remove them. ¹⁶ Then you will put into the ark the words of my promise which I will give you.

¹⁷ “Make a throne of mercy to cover the ark out of pure gold 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. ¹⁸ Make two angels ^[b] out of hammered gold for the two ends of the throne of mercy, ¹⁹ one on each end. Form the angels and the throne of mercy out of one piece of gold. ²⁰ The angels should have their wings spread above the throne of mercy, overshadowing it. They should face each other, looking at the throne of mercy. ²¹ After you put into the ark the words of my promise which I will give you, place the throne of mercy on top. ²² I will be above the throne of mercy between the angels whenever I meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

2 Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I didn’t speak about God’s mystery ^[a] as if it were some kind of brilliant message or wisdom. ² While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject—Jesus Christ, who was crucified. ³ When I came to you, I was weak. I was afraid and very nervous. ⁴ I didn’t speak my message with persuasive intellectual arguments. I spoke my message with a show of spiritual power ⁵ so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.

⁶ However, we do use wisdom to speak to those who are mature. It is a wisdom that doesn’t belong to this world or to the rulers of this world who are in power today and gone tomorrow. ⁷ We speak about the mystery of God’s wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been hidden, which God had planned for our glory before the world began. ⁸ Not one of the rulers of this world has known it. If they had, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But as Scripture says:

¹⁰ God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God.